#face equality

[large text: How to Support People with Facial Differences - the Face Equality Week 2024 Special]

Today is the 13th of May, which means that the Face Equality Week has just started. This year's theme is “My Face is a Masterpiece” which is probably my favorite sentence ever said about having a facial difference. Huge fan, should be used way more often in my opinion.

Because of this occasion, I would like to share some thoughts about Face Equality that I think are rather entry-level, i.e. you don't need to know much to execute these, but you can still support us.

Stop the stare.

I know it's fun to stare - or so I guess, at least - but maybe you shouldn't. Next time you see someone who has a scar or who's face does not move the same way as yours, just mind your business. We can tell when you're “discreetly” looking.

Don't call us deformed. 

Knowing how the people you're trying to support actually call themselves should be an absolute first step, but most people still fail here. Most of us don't appreciate being called “deformed”. I certainly don't. Say “facial difference”, or “disfigurement” if you must. It's 2024. Leave “deformed” to medical reports from the 70s.

No more “What happened?!”s.

If you aren't a doctor, there's a high-to-100% chance that it's none of your business. It's cool that you're curious - keep it to yourself.

Stop insinuating that we are ugly.

“Support people who are ugly!” isn't very supportive. I would say, not in the slightest. Say “people who don't fit the current beauty standards” if that's what you mean. 

Or, to go with this year's theme, “people whose faces are masterpieces” : )

Use critical thinking online.

Is the reaction photo actually funny, or is it just a person with a craniofacial condition? Is the meme actually a meme, or is it just making fun of a person with a facial disfigurement? Is body-shaming suddenly hilarious to you when the person shamed has strabismus? 

If the entire punchline is “lol they have a disability xd”, it's ableism. Plain and simple.

To go with the point above - your joke is probably not funny.

We get it! You can't help telling us how "you're going to hell for laughing" (which yeah, probably) and how we remind you of the ugliest character you have ever seen. I guarantee you that we heard it, and that you are behaving like an edgy middle schooler who hasn't "found out" yet. It's boring and annoying. Also ableist, but you're aware of that already if you're saying that you're going to hell.

Stop with the goddamn trigger warnings. 

We aren't “body horror”, we aren't “gore”, we aren't something that you need to advise your viewers to use their discretion over. Every “graphic footage: child with neurofibromatosis” and “#tw burn scar” is a sign of ableism and disfiguremisia. People with facial differences deserve to be seen. Ableds can survive seeing a person without a nose.

Do a basic reading on what disfiguremisia is.

New word! And an important one. It's a brand of ableism that intersects with more or less everything, and it means discrimination and hatred of people with facial differences/disfigurements. The bullying, harassment, endless name-calling, and microaggressions are all results of disfiguremisia. The ways in which everything is harder for us isn't some unchangeable rule of how the world works, it's just an extremely prevalent type of discrimination.

Understand that we are people.

I know, revolutionary - and yet impossible for so many people to get. We can be a visual representation of evil when it's necessary, we can be a feel-good inspirational story on a morning talk-show, but not much else, it seems. In reality, we are complex, we have our own lives, we can be happy and sad and have the same exact joys and worries that you have.

Hey, artists - facial differences don't make you evil.

Title stolen from a great essay by Lise Deguire (link). When's the last time you saw a positive character with a facial difference that wasn't inspiration porn? I mean a character that's not edgy, full of angst, a murderer, or a villain. Based on what you see in the media, you'd think that having a scar renders you evil on the spot, but in reality it just makes you loathe how artists apparently think you are like. It's boring, it's overdone, it's ableism. Stop doing this, and start noticing when it's being done. Point it out if your friend is writing their new villain to be an evil burn survivor. This kind of portrayal needed to stop ages ago, but tomorrow will be a great time as well.

Before you reply with “I've never seen this” - Darth Vader, Lion King’s Scar (subtle name, great thing to teach kids!), Freddy Krueger, Voldemort, we could be here forever. You're just not paying attention.

Pay attention to where we are not included.

As discussed, there are some places where you see us all the time. But where do you not see us?

Advertisements (unless it's for a scar-removal cream, of course). Fashion shows. Magazine covers. Romance movies where we are the main character.

We deserve to see ourselves in what's around us in the same way able-bodied people do. Trying to make it seem like we don't exist - that's deliberate. 

Interact with our art.

We draw, write, sing, act in movies, we do everything. Support us in the most tangible way - leave us a nice comment, read our books, listen to our songs. Watch movies where actual people with facial differences star, not pseudoinspirational stories about how “being disfigured is ok” where they shove an able-bodied actor into a full face prosthetic just to not have an actor with a disfigurement on set.

Include us.

As this year's Face Equality Week calls for, include us. In art, in movies, in books, in your life. Show us as positive people who are valuable, who are a part of your community - I guarantee that we are in every one that's out there. The world is hostile and unwelcoming to people with facial differences - be the change, wherever you are.

I know that it is different from the usual posts I make, but I hope it was somewhat educational. I just like to use every occasion that I can to force Face Equality into people's heads. To make this at least a bit about writing to keep the blog's theme, I will say that if you want to write about us, you need to care about us in real life as well. Otherwise, it's pointless and, as representation, genuinely worthless.

Below the readmore are some links/resources that you can click to educate yourself further. A lot of them lead to Face Equality International because they have just about everything you should know. If you want to be a better ally to people with facial differences, I heavily recommend them.

#MyFaceIsAMasterpiece

mod Sasza

"How to include realistic features in your art - Face Equality Week Special by Kris Volyk ( NWarrior777 )

tumblr shadowbanned this post and you can't find it in tags. it's second try to upload this and reach people it was hardly made for

I will not be sharing portrayals that are stereotypical, offensive, or otherwise harmful.

#art → visual art

#writing → writing advice

#video games → made with game character creators and adjacent media

#undescribed → images with no description

When possible I'll tag the specific condition being portrayed. I will also tag aids that are related to facial differences, like prostheses, breathing tubes, hearing aids, etc.

Feel free to submit posts/tag me 😁

Specific tags under the readmore.

Have a Hot Girl Summer! 🏖️🥳

[id: An illustration of four women at the beach during the summer. In the middle is Megan Thee Stallion with one hand on her hip and the other holding up a portable stereo. She is wearing a ring-linked monokini and long gloves while making her iconic ‘tongue-out’ face. To her right is a physically disabled Black girl in a beach-safe wheelchair. She is smiling and throwing dollar bills while wearing a bikini, thigh highs, and cowboy hat. On the far left is a South Asian woman with burn scars over her body and neck-length hair clapping her hands. She is wearing a string bikini and choker. Next to her is a fat, white, redheaded woman in a chained monokini with gold jewelry pointing up at the sky.]

A global campaign to highlight the issues facing people with facial differences and to advocate for a better, fairer world for people who look different.

“ We aim to improve the life prospects of any person anywhere in the world who has a facial difference or disfigurement, an unusual-looking, scarred or asymmetrical face (or body) from any cause. 

...”Face Equality International is an alliance of NGOs/charities around the world that are supporting and representing people with many different disfigurements. Most of these NGOs are condition-specific (ie: for people with clefts, burns, cranio-facial conditions, psoriasis and other conditions) and their members have very different medical and surgical needs and treatments. But their members also face very similar psychological, cultural and social barriers to living fulfilling lives.

“Many people report (and academic studies bear this out) feeling low self-esteem in the global ‘look-perfect’ culture, being isolated and friendless, facing teasing, ridicule and staring in public places, low expectations in school, problems getting work, discrimination in the workplace, abuse on social media and stereotyping in the media just because of the way they look. In many countries, disfigurement goes hand in hand with poverty, prejudice and exclusion.

“ The vision of Face Equality International is that all societies across the world accept, respect and value people who have facial differences and disfigurements so that they can then lead the lives they wish unaffected by prejudice, low expectations and stigma.

... “We use ‘disfigurement’ as a collective term that describes the visual effect that a congenital or other condition, paralysis or scar can have on the appearance of a person’s face, hands or body. It can affect anyone from any social or demographic group and at any time in life.

“Disfigurement far too often imposes disadvantage on individuals and their families and is a publicly-understood term that expresses this. It is also enshrined in legislation in some countries to protect people from discrimination.

“Face Equality International will use ‘disfigurement’ whenever it is arguing for the end to disadvantage and injustice.

“However, Face Equality International also respects the fact that some people dislike the term ‘disfigurement’ as a collective word, in which case ‘facial difference’ tends to be more widely accepted. In some instances, ‘visible difference’ may be used when relating to a disfigurement that affects a person’s face and body.