Is this really a mask?

The idea that people play different roles in different situations (dramaturgy) is popularized by Erving Goffman in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

While you might think that the booming of reality TV shows is the antipole of dramaturgy, it is not as simple as it seems. The ‘real life’ in those shows is as real as decaf coffee. They still engage in dramaturgy, namely they play themselves.

Sometimes there is more truth in the mask than there is in what we assume to be our ‘real self.’ *

* Žižek, S. (2005). Iraq: the Borrowed Kettle. London: Verso.