#face difference

[bebsi-cola]

disability is natural. disability is normal. a person born with a face difference is more natural than perfectly straight, white teeth. we don't have an instinctive fear of disabled people, especially visibly disabled persons. we have been trained year in year out to view disability and visible difference as scary. and to be honest the way to fix that is to just practice. look up people with face differences. there are people out there willingly promoting the visibility of people like them to help change the stigma around face differences. go to changingfaces (dot) org (dot) uk and click on the real stories page. people are reaching out, doing the work, willing to put themselves out there, sharing their stories, for better representation. for other people to start treating them like the human beings that they are, and less like a spectacle. do the bare minimum, and go look.

[cripplecharacters]

How to Support People with Facial Differences - the Face Equality Week 2024 Special

[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

https://faceequalityinternational.org/the-harmful-trope-of-facial-differences-in-film-villains/

https://faceequalityinternational.org/why-i-will-not-hide/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/disability-is-diversity/202111/hidden-community-the-movement-face-equality

https://faceequalityinternational.org/facial-differences-in-the-media/

https://faceequalityinternational.org/advertising-excludes-women-with-faces-like-mine/

https://www.phoenix-society.org/resources/burn-community-bookshelf

https://faceequalityinternational.org/about-fei/international-face-equality-week/

https://faceequalityinternational.org/hidden-from-view-women-with-facial-differences-in-the-media

https://www.phoenix-society.org/resources/i-dont-see-your-scars

Thanks for actually clicking the readmore

[nwarrior777]

not enough fancy old characters, especcially ladies, i see must fix

[labradorduck]

Ah I've been meaning to make a post about this for a while but those of us with uneven eyes like strabismus and my nerve damage, the manga and anime that's currently popular, Dungeon Meshi, has a character with uneven eyes!

His uneven eyes aren't a visual short hand for being dumb or the usual nonsense we see when we see portrayals of characters with uneven eyes. He's very talented and good at what he does!

Anyway I'm very excited about this lad. Representation matters and I feel a little better about my uneven face.

[theravenflies]

I'm about to blow a lot of minds right now

Have you ever seen a person with a visible disability and wondered how they got it? Did you see someone with a burn or other scar and wonder what happened? Does what happened to that person who doesn't have part of their leg fill you with burning questions? Well, guess what, you don't even need to ask. You already know.

Does someone have a burn scar? You already know what happened, they got burned. A cut scar? They got cut by something. Missing part of a limb? Clearly they were either born without it or something happened that made the removal necessary. Are they in a wheelchair? Clearly something happened that made them using a wheelchair necessary, whether that something was a condition they were born with or if it's a condition they acquired later in life. You already know what happened. Don't ask.

The who, when, where, and why of that person's disability does not matter, it is not your business. That is their personal medical history and they should not be asked to disclose it to a random stranger who's staring at them like they're a unicorn or something. You know what happened. You do not need the specifics. So don't ask for them.

[lonely-paracosmos]

Anyways, Chem with treacher collins syndrome and a cleft pallet.

The thing on the side of their head is a bone anchored hearing aid :)

[slugass]

how to call out anti-autistic ableism:

USE A FUCKING BRAINLET, THE VISUAL VERSION OF CALLING SOMEONE THE FUCKING R-SLUR, SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO MOCK DISABILITY, BOTH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL, TO REPRESENT THE BIGOT, BECAUSE IT COULD NEVER BE NON-(MENTALLY) DISABLED PEOPLE DOING THE BIGOTRY MOST OF THE TIME, RIGHT???

I’M SURE THAT WON’T MAKE YOU LOOK HYPOCRITICAL AND ABLEIST AT ALL.

[dnd-thrrasir]

A couple pictures I drew for the recent Thrrasir session. No more eye patch for Suaco! We rocking the disability pride in this campaign ~

[tangg-official-by-maddy-k]

It's another sibling duo!!

They're my babies omg. (Pretty much all my ocs are my babies btw).

Alex has no idea what is happening rn. Adrianna is having a BLAST tho. (you go girl!).

I really need to draw these two more. They are so much fun!

Adri is such a sassy diva. She absolutely loves fashion and wants to design clothes someday! (there's your little character fact ^^)

Um, for the record, this is my first character with a craniofacial difference and I'm still learning how to draw those so if you have any tips PLEASE let me know!

[nerves-nebula]

OH that post about facial differences reminds me- what do people with facial differences prefer to be called? Is disfigured/facial disfigurement off limits? I've seen people use it to describe themselves and say that it's not a bad thing to be disfigured, but they might be doing it in like a reclaiming way and idk if it's generally considered neutral or bad to say someone ELSE is disfigured. do y'all prefer the term facial differences? are there other terms i should avoid and/or use more?

[ahb-writes]

Remarkable references and descriptive language for cleft-lippped characters.

tutorial for drawing characters with cleft lip! sorry that it's mostly unilateral-centric but it makes up the vast majority of resources and photos. still tried to get tips for drawing bilateral clefts in though.

please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People : )

if you draw any characters using this feel free to tag me!!

[bebsi-cola]

beauty standards for pw face difference can be a complicated subject but remember

1. pw fd can be and are pretty in real life

2. pw fd don't have to be pretty and shouldn't forced to try be pretty for basic human respect

3. don't call pw fd pretty just to humour them, they're people and no. 2 applies

[cripplecharacters]

would y'all happen to know of any databases/collections of photos or art references of people with facial differences? maybe in the vein of FatPhotoRef (a website with self-submitted pose references with fat models)?

I'm a learning visual artist and I've found one of the best ways for me to hone some aspect of drawing is to do timed sketches from photo references. I'm going to focus on facial expression soonish and want to cover people with various facial differences as well as the typically non-facial-difference-having models on mainstream reference sites. Any resources would be appreciated--even just non-art-focused websites with lots of neutral/positive photos of people with facial differences that I can sketch!

Thanks for all the work you do!

Hello!

The closest one to what you describe is probably Positive Exposure, which aims to photograph and portray all kinds of disabled people (not just visibly disabled) in a less medicalized/dehumanizing way. If you know which conditions cause facial differences then you can go through their albums and pick some of them out - there's a ton of them. The one I linked goes to their ichthyosis shoot.

Here are some other photo resources I do know of, but just be aware they might be underwhelming for what you're looking for;

Portrait Positive - focuses on women with facial and bodily differences;

HOW DO YOU C ME NOW? - focuses on people with large birthmarks;

Here I Am - focuses on adults and seniors with Down Syndrome;

About Face - focuses on people with various kinds of facial paralysis, mostly Bell's palsy

Classic Stock Photo Website - exactly what it says.

These are video resources, obviously less convenient, but you can try screenshotting and redrawing a shot that you like;

#FearNoFace

I Am More Than Just Your Villain

AboutFace's Awareness Videos (unrelated to the other link named similarly)

Outside these you can always try looking for models/actors with facial differences. Some you can look up include Adam Pearson, Catrin Pugh, Austin Halls, Justin Stewart, Alison Midstokke, Loide Ndemueda, or Turia Pitt.

I hope this helps! Good luck drawing

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

Video Description:

A TikTok video featuring a person with medium brown skin, multiple face piercings, a shaved head, and vitiligo spots on their face.

A comment on the screen reads "Stunning! Have you ever tried to do a makeup look where you trace your vitiligo with neon liner or something to truly enhance it?"

The video shows them lining their vitiligo, specifically around their eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and the top of their head, with black thorny shapes. Then they put on grey and sparkly eye shadow, black winged eyeliner, and mascara. They line their lips in black.

The video cuts to the final makeup look which is the makeup above with large red colored contacts, a black choker necklace with metal spikes, and a black dress. They wink at the camera.

/End Video Description.

[tempo-takoyaki]

Listen, I love the "XL helps HC to see how beautiful he is" scenario as much as the next person... But I also see it like this.

[dovewingkinnie]

player i need to press my screen against your face for scientific reasons