On Compliance

And what an experiment from the 60s can tell us about Queer nightlife in 2025

This is not the writing I’m supposed to be releasing today. I’m meant to be working on my Artist’s Guide to Clean(er) Air Gigs. Unfortunately though, yesterday I committed the rookie error of talking about what I’m doing on social media, and now PDA¹ dictates that I must do literally anything else.

So instead, this is a little meditation on safety and conformity.

I want to tell you a story.

Our story begins at Columbia University in 1968, where social psychology researchers Latane and Darley recruited students for an experiment² . Upon arrival, participants would be left in a room (either alone or with two others), ostensibly to fill out a questionnaire until the researchers returned. Little did the students know that this period was when the actual experiment would take place.

A short while after the researchers left, smoke would be pumped in from one of the room’s air vents, simulating an emergency. The participants who were left in the room alone would almost immediately note the smoke and report it. Interestingly, those waiting in groups took far longer, if they reported it at all.

A student sits completing a survey next to a plume of smoke

While the participants in the group setting clearly noticed the smoke, they ignored it and continued with their questionnaire even as the smoke filled the room, becoming so thick that their vision was being obscured, their eyes were irritated and they were coughing. Notably, by the end of the experiment the majority of participants in the group settings (5/8 groups) did not report the smoke at all³.

The study in this story is real, but what’s the lesson? That the participants in groups were all too distracted by each other to notice the smoke? Not quite - while they did take slightly longer to notice the smoke than the solo participants, this was a difference in the order of seconds. They all noticed the smoke, yet they still did not act.

The lesson is a reminder that we are social creatures - we look to each other for guidance on how to act in situations where the answer might appear simple when we’re alone (the room is filling with smoke - get out!).

We look to others to see if they’re noticing what we’re noticing - they don’t seem bothered by the smoke, so perhaps it’s fine. Maybe they know something we don’t - surely they’d be worried and say something if it was actually a big deal. It would be rude to interrupt the experiment for something that might not even be a problem! The (notably white, Western) social contracts of conformity and politeness⁴ keep us pinned in place, even if we can tell something may well be very wrong, and possibly also dangerous.

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Hard cut to today. As a queer performer who has been pretty open about having been disabled by COVID at work, I have a lot of conversations with a lot of people about trying to make nightlife spaces safer, especially in LGBTQIA+ communities. One conversation I have now had countless times is around masks at shows. Producers try to make the effort to be a little more accessible and put “masks encouraged” on their posters. But basically no one wears them, so people still complain in the comments on their event page that it’s not enough. What’s up with that?

Assuming that their heart is in the right place and they’re not just trying to placate critics without having to actually do any actual work⁵, what is up?

Years of pressure from big businesses to return to “normal” and manufactured consent for the social end of the pandemic have created a situation where most people consider COVID to be “over”, despite the fact that it is still circulating at rates far higher than it ever did during the years they acknowledge as “the pandemic”⁶.

How to hide a pandemic: if we only look at reported COVID cases, it looks like cases have almost disappeared, but that’s largely because people people stopped testing (or having access to it), not because they stopped catching it. Wastewater data shows us a different story though, clearly highlighting each big wave.

People are being disabled by COVID at staggering rates. Post-COVID health complications are popping up all over the place, whether they are understood as being brought on by repeated infections or not. We have known for years now that COVID passed on asymptomatically can still kill or maim. We have more than 440,000 studies⁷ telling us that repeat infection is bad for us. One study of US Marines found almost a quarter were experiencing Long COVID and struggling with their duties⁸. THE MARINES. The WHO clearly stated that we are still in this shit⁹.

If you pay attention to any of this - to just how many people are still dying and being disabled by COVID, there is undeniably a problem. The metaphorical room is filling with smoke¹⁰. And yet, putting on a mask feels embarrassing for many people.

We look to others to see if they’re noticing what we’re noticing - they don’t seem bothered by the number of their friends with new health issues, so perhaps it’s fine. Maybe they know something we don’t - surely they’d be wearing a mask if it was actually a big deal. It would be rude to interrupt the feeling of normalcy for something that might not even be a problem!

The social contracts of conformity and politeness keep us pinned in place, even if we can tell something may well be very wrong, and possibly also dangerous.

This is all to say that where we are right now, if our capacity for accessibility is contingent on people’s willingness to be the odd one out in a group - to be the one to act when no one else is - we are likely in for a bad time. In a 2023 survey study, most people were found to support mask mandates, however not all of those people actually wore masks themselves. Meaning - there is a decent number of people who want to mask, but won’t unless they’re given a mandate, AKA a new social contract to follow.¹¹

So why am I telling you all of this?

Because we can use this understanding to our advantage when putting on events. Currently the social contract is a commitment to “normality”, and putting on a mask is breaking that. But the thing is, the arts have always shaped culture, especially queer art.

It’s no surprise then that the vast majority of shows already leading the charge on COVID access are by LGBTQIA+ performers. We’ve already broken some of the most basic social contracts by queering our sex and transing our genders! We have a history of facing off with illness no-one wanted to acknowledge! What’s a little face mask in comparison to that?

If the cultural norm becomes one of assuming that spaces will be accessible - one of looking out for one another¹² - then a lack of access becomes what is considered to be rude.

So what do we need to do then? It’s simple really - if we’re going to say that masks are encouraged, we need to actually encourage them. Having one note on your event page and a box of masks by the door is *technically* making masks available¹³, but does nothing to meet people where they’re at right now, nor does it help counter-steer against the currents of social pressure.

If you produce shows or host events, it’s a good time to ask yourself - do you want to actually encourage accessibility through masking at your show, or do you just want to be seen encouraging it so all those pesky disability justice lovers will get off your case?

(Please know I say that with the love and understanding of someone who also produces events. I know it’s a fucking slog. Independent producing is expensive, it’s exhausting, and it involves far more work than anyone unfamiliar with it could ever know. But if we’re gonna talk the talk on accessibility, we’ve got to also walk it.)

So, a few ideas of what active encouragement could look like are:

1. Show don’t (just) tell - ensure all the visible staff at your event (who can) are masked. It’s your space, people are way more likely to follow your lead! You’re already setting expectations on what the culture is at your event in a million little ways. Include this in it!

2. Include photos of masked attendees on promotional materials - they’re accessibility tools and sign of the times we’re living in. We don’t need to hide them from view. In order to do this you first have to get masked attendees. See point 1.

3. Get staff or volunteers to actively hand masks out at the door or cloakroom, or leave them on seats with a note attached. From personal experience I’ve found that even a little “thanks for taking care of our performers by masking!” goes a really long way.

   

4. Host some mask mandatory shows. If a whole run doesn’t feel feasible¹⁴, have a few masked nights, or masked hours at a club night. This provides vital access to people who need it, and gets people used to the idea that chucking on a mask sometimes doesn’t have to be a huge deal. I’ve personally seen audience members put on a mask at one of my shows where it was required, and then bumped into them hours later at another show (where it wasn’t), mask still on. Like many things, it’s easier to keep up than to start.

5. Use other mitigations (like using air purifiers) and include a description of them in your event info. The more we clean the air, the less we have to rely on perfect adherence to masking to make a space safer. If you’re in Naarm/Melbourne and would like to borrow some free clean air gear for your gig, get in touch with Clean Air Naarm! Otherwise, check out this map by Clean Air Club to see if there’s a clean air org near you.

Ultimately, one of the reasons people are sometimes most resistant to masks is also one of their strengths - they are an interruption of the push to a normal that no longer exists. A visual reminder that there’s something in the air and for the need to protect each other. They’re a symbolic version of someone yelling “fire!”

One key difference here is that in some of the original Smoky Room Experiment trials, the two additional people in the group setting were plants - people in on the experiment instructed to stay passive. When participants looked to them and they did not act, they saw that as a sign that they didn’t need to do anything either.

The good news is we are not passive experiment plants. What will people see when they look to you?

In the face of every daily piece of horrifying news coming out of the US (and our own copycat conservative politicians at home), it’s clear that being willing to stand out and stand up for something - to be disobedient in the face of immense pressure - is only going to get more vital. Artists, performers and event producers are uniquely placed to help foster spaces where we can practice this.

Even (and especially) alone though, we need to get comfy with it. Building this confidence is absolutely possible, but it’s a skill that takes practice. Dr Devon Price has written a great piece on practicing disobedience - definitely recommended reading (especially if you’re also neurodivergent). There are so many ways to practice the act of awkwardly, defiantly, not doing what’s expected of you. Chucking on a mask is just a particularly good one as you can do it anywhere, it’s good for you too, and it doesn’t even require you to say anything!

More importantly, you have disabled people literally begging you to wear one to help them stay alive in a world that’s increasingly openly eugenicist; you have shitty politicians and cops trying to restrict your right wear one¹⁵; there are thousands of people in mask blocs across the globe trying to give you masks for free; quality masks offer near perfect protection at preventing the spread of airborne illness ¹⁶; they offer you a little privacy - a valuable thing in a surveillance state; wearing a mask is class solidarity with workers who are over-exposed and underpaid; and pettily - masks also just really, really annoy a certain type of right winger.

If you’re someone who deeply feels the pressure of social expectations, someone who hates disappointing people, or someone who’s ever described yourself as a “people pleaser”, and you’re also someone who valorises the work of defiant activists past… consider this your challenge for the week: Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Notice the smoke. Call fire. Chuck a mask in your pocket and then pick some moments throughout your week and put it on.

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I hope you enjoyed this little story - it felt relevant to, but also too long to include in the Artist’s Guide to Clean(er) Air Gigs I’m working on. If you’ve got questions that you’d like answered in the guide, please feel free to let me know in the comments below!

As always, I hope you’re as safe as can be wherever you are. Reach out if there are topics you’d like me to cover!

This week I’ve been…

Reading: It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic

Watching: The L Word Season 1 (trash is an important part of a balanced media diet)

Attempting: To get my 10 month old puppy Beyblade to leave the cat alone.

Beyblade for morale. She is a menace, who may or may not get it from me.

With love and solidarity,

Themme Fatale xoxo

(and Beyblade, who barked almost the entire first half of me writing this)

1. Google reckons PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) is “a behavioural profile, often associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder, characterized by an extreme and obsessive need to resist or avoid everyday demands, even when they are reasonable, driven by a high level of anxiety triggered by the feeling of losing control when faced with requests or expectations”. I once saw someone describe PDA as a “Persistent Need for Autonomy”. I like that description better.

2. If your research ethics alarm bells are immediately sounding, you’re not alone

3. Latane, B., & Darley, J. M. (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(3), 215–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0026570

4. Obviously I’m not saying that there are only social contracts of conformity and politeness in the west. However, what “politeness” looks like, and how strictly we are expected to adhere to expected behaviours varies a lot across the globe. I’m talking about one specific flavour of it here.

5. I think this is genuinely the case for the majority of the people I’ve spoken to, however there are always frustrating exceptions.

6. Usually what people mean by this is the period where there were any large-scale mitigations in place. This is why we differentiate between the social end of the pandemic (2022 for many people), and the real actual end of the pandemic (TBD)

7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/

8. Fuck the military. Obviously. But data is data and there’s no denying that those boys are fit!

9. “This virus is here to stay. It is still killing, and it’s still changing. … The worst thing any country could do now is …to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about.” - The WHO

10. The real room on the other hand is filling with virus. I don’t know if that’s better.

11. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666535222001008

12. Yes this sounds cheesy but fuck me, don’t you want to dream of something better?

13. We all know that technical victory is the worst kind. Don’t be that guy.

14. It might surprise you to learn just how much of a market there is for masked shows. Across multiple states I have now hosted masked shows to thousands of people. More masked shows are popping up all the time! They not only sell, but have whole audiences that just straight-up wouldn’t come otherwise. Because people are so thirsty for them, there’s also a whole community of people ready to help promote them for you! Access and business are often pitted as opposing forces, but they don’t have to be.

15. Yes, even here in Melbourne

16. Usually when people say “masks don’t work” they mean cloth masks. Respirators are great. Read the study for yourself.