A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

Where literate man regarded an alias or mask as deceiving, re-presenting something other than the true self, the tribesman often has several faces, carefully painted, each representing a self in a corporate role. When you wear a mask, you assume a corporate identity. You "put on” the audience. Unlike a job, a role is total: one assumes it, identifies completely with it, steps into it.
“McLuhan Looks at Fashion” (1968) in On the Nature of Media, 2016, p 147
Year: 1968
Chapter: Putting On
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan