Guy Fawkes mask

The Guy Fawkes mask (also known as the V for Vendetta mask or Anonymous mask) is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes (the best-known member of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in London on 5 November 1605) created by illustrator David Lloyd for the 1982–1989 graphic novel V for Vendetta. Inspired by the use of a mask representing Fawkes being burned on an effigy having long previously had roots as part of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations, Lloyd designed the mask as a smiling face with red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard, worn in the graphic novel's narrative by (and ultimately synonymous to) anarchist protagonist V. Following the release of the graphic novel and its 2005 film adaptation, this design came to represent broad protest, later also becoming a well-known symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous after appearing in web forums, used in Project Chanology, the Occupy movement, Anonymous for the Voiceless, the fictional F-Society in Mr. Robot, and other anti-establishment protests around the world. This has led to the mask also being known by the popular name of the Anonymous mask.[1]

A protester in a Guy Fawkes mask, created by David Lloyd for 1982–89's V for Vendetta, 2005's film adaptation, and 2019's prequel television series.

Origins
A masked Guy being paraded on Guy Fawkes Night, 1868.
Guy Fawkes effigies and collectors, all masked, 1903, by John Benjamin Stone.

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was commemorated from early on by burning effigies of unpopular figures. Towards the end of the 18th century, reports appeared of children begging for money with grotesquely masked effigies of Guy Fawkes,[2] and 5 November gradually became known as Guy Fawkes Night, although many now prefer the term "Bonfire Night".[3] From the 1864 Chambers Book of Days:

The universal mode of observance through all part of England is the dressing up of a scarecrow figure in such cast-habiliments as can be procured (the head-piece, generally a paper-cap, painted and knotted with paper strips in imitation of ribbons), parading it in a chair through the streets, and at nightfall burning it with great solemnity in a huge bonfire ...[4]

In 1847, The Lancet published "Notes of A Case of Death From Fright," in which the death of a two-year-old was attributed to the fright caused by seeing a boy wearing a red Guy Fawkes mask.[5]

In the 20th century, in the UK, large numbers of cheap cardboard or paper Guy Fawkes masks were sold to children each autumn or given out free with comics;[6][7] by the 1980s their popularity became increasingly supplanted by Halloween.[8] In 1958, wearing Guy Fawkes masks was mentioned during a debate in the Parliament of Western Australia as an example of harmless and excusable (though technically unlawful) possession of a face mask at night.[9] J.J. Brady said, "at one time it was traditional to wear masks on Guy Fawkes night. So, if tonight anyone is found wearing a Guy Fawkes mask I, as Minister for Police, will see that he is duly excused."[9]

David Lloyd's Guy Fawkes mask at the Odeon Leicester Square in London during the 2006 screening of V for Vendetta.

The British comic book series V for Vendetta, which started in 1982, "centers on a vigilante's efforts to destroy an authoritarian government in a dystopian future United Kingdom". When developing the story, illustrator David Lloyd made a handwritten note on the intend anarchist protagonist, V: "Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? He'd look really bizarre and it would give Guy Fawkes the image he's deserved all these years. We shouldn't burn the chap every Nov. 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament!" Writer Alan Moore commented that, due to Lloyd's idea, "All of the various fragments in my head suddenly fell into place, united behind the single image of a Guy Fawkes mask."[10] He also noted "how interesting it was that we should have taken up the image right at the point where it was apparently being purged from the annals of English iconography."[11] As such, V wears a Guy Fawkes mask (as designed by Lloyd) throughout the story, and in the climax of its 2005 film adaptation and 2022 third season of its prequel television series, thousands of protesters adopt the same costume as they march on Parliament.[12]

Adoption by protesters

Background

Since the 2005 release of the film V for Vendetta and the mass production of David Lloyd's mask design by Warner Bros., the use of Guy Fawkes masks has become widespread internationally among groups protesting against politicians, banks, and financial institutions. The masks both conceal the identity and protect the face of individuals and demonstrate their commitment to a shared cause.[13][14]

The character developed as an Internet meme, common on imageboards such as 4chan as well as on video-sharing based Web sites such as YouTube. Initially the character, a stick figure who failed at everything, emerged and became known as "Epic Fail Guy" (EFG). For reasons that have never been explained, it was increasingly shown as wearing a V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask (though this is likely a reference to the fact that Guy Fawkes failed to complete the gunpowder plot).

On 17 April 2006 a pair of rival groups wearing Fawkes masks confronted each other outside the New York City offices of Warner Brothers and DC Comics. One group, led by freegan Adam Weismann, protested against a perceived misrepresentation of the Anarchist movement in the film V for Vendetta. The other group, led by libertarian Todd Seavey, counter-protested against the anarchists, wearing masks purportedly supplied by a Time Warner employee.[15][16]

In April 2016 Anonymous for the Voiceless was created; they also use the mask while spreading veganism.

Anonymous
Members of the group Anonymous wear Guy Fawkes masks at a protest against the Church of Scientology. London, 2008.

The mask became associated with the hacktivism group Anonymous's Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008.[17][18] The group protested the Church of Scientology in response to the Church forcing YouTube to pull a video of Tom Cruise discussing Scientology that was meant for internal use within the Church.[19] In response, Anonymous protested the litigious methods of the Church of Scientology over a period of several months. Protesters were encouraged to hide their faces, since it was common practice for Church members to photograph anti-Scientology protesters. The Guy Fawkes mask was a widely used method of hiding faces.[20]

As the protests continued, more protesters began opting to use the Guy Fawkes mask, which eventually took on symbolic status within the group.[21][22] Scott Stewart of University of Nebraska at Omaha's The Gateway wrote: "Many participants sported Guy Fawkes masks to draw attention both to their identity as Anonymous and the Church of Scientology's abuse of litigation and coercion to suppress anti-Scientology viewpoints."[20] The Internet-based group then adopted the character for its wider protests against authority.[21][22][23][24] A version of the mask was later used in the 2015 television series Mr. Robot to represent the hacktivist group F-Society, in reference to Anonymous.

On 23 May 2009, protesters wearing the mask detonated a fake barrel of gunpowder outside Parliament while protesting over the issue of British MPs' expenses.[25]

During the 2011 Wisconsin protests, and then during the subsequent Occupy Wall Street and the ongoing Occupy movement, the mask appeared internationally[22] as a symbol of popular rebellion. In October 2011, campaigner Julian Assange attended the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest wearing such a mask, which he removed after a request by the police.[13]

A protester in a Guy Fawkes mask during the Million Mask March. Washington, D.C., 2015.

In January 2012, Guy Fawkes masks were used by protesters against Poland's signing of ACTA.[26]

On 10 June 2012, in Mumbai, India, a group of 100 Anonymous members and college students gathered at Azad Maidan, dressed all in black and wearing Guy Fawkes masks, to protest against the Indian Government's censorship of the Internet.[27]

The mask, used by Bahraini protesters during the Arab Spring-inspired Bahraini uprising, was banned in the country in February 2013,[28] a few months after a similar decision by United Arab Emirates, another Persian Gulf country.[29] The Industry and Commerce Ministry of Bahrain said the ban on importing the mask, which it referred to as "revolution mask", was due to concerns over "public safety".[30] The decision, described by Voice of America as "unusual",[31] marked one of the latest in government efforts to suppress the two-year-old uprising.[29] However, a British-based rights activist[31] and Samuel Muston of The Independent[28] downplayed the effect of the ban. The Manama Voice reported that use of mask in protests increased following the ban.[32]

The masks were used by anti-government protesters in Thailand in 2012,[33] and by protesters in Turkey in 2013.[34] They were also used in protests in Brazil[35] and Egypt in 2013.[36]

In May 2013, the government of Saudi Arabia banned the importation of the masks, and said it would confiscate any found to be for sale. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs stated that the mask is "a symbol of rebels and revenge", and warned imams and parents that "they could be used to incite the youth to destabilize security and spread chaos ..."[37] On 22 September 2013, Saudi religious police prohibited the wearing of the Guy Fawkes mask, the day before Saudi Arabia's 83rd National Day.[38]

The wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly has been banned in Canada, following the enactment of Bill C-309, and now carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence.[39]

Participants in the 2014 Venezuelan protests carried a wide variety of masks; one of them was the Guy Fawkes mask, sometimes painted with the colours of the Venezuelan flag.[40]

In October 2019 protesters in Hong Kong started using the mask in opposition to the government's banning the use of masks during protests.[41]

Guy Fawkes masks were among the symbols displayed during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.[42]

Views of Moore and Lloyd

Alan Moore, anarchist and author of V for Vendetta, has supported use of the mask, and stated in a 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly, "I was also quite heartened the other day when watching the news to see that there were demonstrations outside the Scientology headquarters over here, and that they suddenly flashed to a clip showing all these demonstrators wearing V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks. That pleased me. That gave me a warm little glow."[43] Whilst Moore did not create such a character for the purposes it has served he explains to The Guardian, "suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn't it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world ... It's peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction."[44]

V for Vendetta illustrator and co-creator David Lloyd:

The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way. My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they stand for individualism – V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system. We knew that V was going to be an escapee from a concentration camp where he had been subjected to medical experiments but then I had the idea that in his craziness he would decide to adopt the persona and mission of Guy Fawkes – our great historical revolutionary.[13]

Sales and corporate ownership of rights

According to Time in 2011, the protesters' adoption of the mask had led to it becoming the top-selling mask on Amazon.com, selling hundreds of thousands a year. Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Warner Bros. and DC Comics, owns the rights to the image and is paid a fee with the sale of each official mask.[45][46]

See also
  • Anti-mask law
  • Richard Nixon mask

References
  1. Angus Griffin, "A History of the Anonymous Mask", Dazed.com, 14 June 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2019
  2. House of Commons Information Office (September 2006), The Gunpowder Plot (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2005, retrieved 15 February 2011
  3. BBC:Festivals and Events. Accessed 9 November 2012
  4. Chambers Books of Days, 1864, pp. 549–550
  5. The London Lancet: A Journal of British and Foreign Medical and Chemical Science, Criticism, Literature and News. Burgess, Stringer & Company. 1847. p. 37.
  6. Whizzer and Chips comic, 1969
  7. Whoopee comic, 1983
  8. Cannadine, David (4 November 2005), "Halloween v Guy Fawkes Day", news.bbc.co.uk, archived from the original on 31 October 2010, retrieved 7 November 2010
  9. "Legislative Assembly – Wednesday, 5th of November, 1958" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia.
  10. Moore, Alan (2011). Behind The Painted Smile.
  11. Moore, Alan (10 February 2012). "Viewpoint: V for Vendetta and the rise of Anonymous". BBC News. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  12. Nickelsburg, Monica (3 July 2013). "A Brief History Of the Guy Fawks Mask". The Week. The Week. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  13. Waites, Rosie (20 October 2011). "V for Vendetta masks: Who's behind them?". London, UK: BBC News. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  14. Montes, Euclides (10 September 2011). "The V for Vendetta mask: a political sign of the times". The Guardian. London, UK. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Archived from the original on 20 December 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2012. Not only does wearing a Guy Fawkes mask at demonstrations give protesters anonymity, it's an instant symbol of rebellion
  15. Bilton, Nick (28 August 2011). "Masked Anonymous Protesters Aid Time Warners Bottom Line". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  16. Launder, William (2 May 2006). ""V" stands for very bad anarchist movie". Columbia News Service. Archived from the original on 13 March 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2007.
  17. Bilton, Nick (28 August 2011). "Masked Protesters Aid Time Warner's Bottom Line". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  18. Thompson, Nick (5 November 2011). "Guy Fawkes mask inspires Occupy protests around the world". CNN World. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  19. "The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried To Suppress", Gawker.com, 15 January 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2013
  20. Stewart, Scott (25 March 2008). "Cyberterrorism, hacktivism: Trying to find hope: Anonymous fights Co$ while Chinese launch cyber attacks on human rights groups". The Gateway. University of Nebraska at Omaha. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
  21. John S. Forrester (11 February 2008), "Dozens of masked protesters blast Scientology church. Web-based foes guard IDs, assert risk of retribution", Boston.com, The Boston Globe
  22. Kwek, Glenda (14 October 2011). "V for vague: Occupy Sydney's faceless leaders". The Sydney Morning Herald Times. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  23. Sieczkowski, Cavan (5 November 2012). "Anonymous Claims To Have Hacked 28,000 PayPal Passwords For Guy Fawkes Day". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  24. Matyszczyk, Chris (9 August 2011). "Anonymous: Facebook's going down November 5". CNET. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  25. "Flashmob protest at MPs' expenses". BBC News. 23 May 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  26. Gera, Vanessa. "Poland signs copyright treaty that drew protests". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  27. Anonymous India to use RTI in fight against Internet censorship retrieved 24 June 2012
  28. Muston, Samuel (25 February 2013). "Anti-protest: Bahrain bans import of plastic Guy Fawkes masks". The Independent. London. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  29. Sorcha Pollak (27 February 2013). "Bahrain Bans 'V for Vendetta' Masks". Time. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  30. "Bahrain bans Guy Fawkes mask". Al Akhbar (Lebanon). 25 February 2013. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  31. Matthew Hilburn (27 February 2013). "Bahrain Bans Import of Protest Masks". Voice of America. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  32. البحرينيون يتحدون قرار منع قناع "فانديتا" (صور) (in Arabic). Manama Voice. 3 March 2013. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  33. "White masks rally goes international". Bangkok Post. 23 June 2013.
  34. "In pictures: Turkey's protesters see the funny side". The Observers. 6 June 2013.
  35. Watts, Jonathan (18 June 2013). "Brazil protests erupt over public services and World Cup costs". The Guardian. London.
  36. "Guy Fawkes Masks Keep Popping Up In The Egyptian Protests". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  37. Riyadh Bureau, Saudi Arabia Bans Import of V for Vendetta Masks, 30 May 2013 Archived 8 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 29 June 2013
  38. "Saudi religious police confiscate Guy Fawkes masks ahead of National Day". Al Arabiya. 22 September 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  39. Meagan Fitzpatrick, "Wearing a mask at a riot is now a crime", CBC News, 19 June 2013 Retrieved 28 October 2013
  40. "AP Photos: Inventive masks in Venezuela protests". Associated Press. 1 March 2014.
  41. Jasmine Siu (31 October 2019). "Hong Kong's mask ban unconstitutional say pan-democrats, as they ask High Court to overturn emergency law". scmp.com. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  42. Pengelly, Martin; Luscombe, Richard (10 January 2021). "Impeachment articles could be introduced as early as Monday". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  43. Gopalan, Nisha (21 July 2008). "Alan Moore Still Knows the Score!". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 15 February 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  44. Lamont, Tom. "Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  45. Carbone, Nick (29 August 2011). "How Time Warner Profits from the 'Anonymous' Hackers". Time. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  46. Bilton, Nick (28 August 2011). "Masked Protesters Aid Time Warner's Bottom Line". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2012.

Further reading

Media related to Masks of Guy Fawkes at Wikimedia Commons

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