Is it time to talk about face equality?

Across the UK, approximately 1.3 million children, young people and adults have a significant disfigurement, with almost half of them affecting the face.

The impact of a visible difference on a person’s life is far-reaching. Research commissioned by Changing Faces, a charity that supports those affected by visible differences, found that six in 10 people have experienced hostile behaviour from strangers as a result.

More than 25 per cent of people had experienced a hate crime, and one in three had felt either depressed, anxious or sad.

The week beginning 17 May marks International Face Equality Week, a global campaign that aims to highlight the ongoing struggles of people within this community. One key issue is a lack of understanding of facial differences and how to talk about them in an inclusive way.

To help counter this, Face Equality International, an alliance of charities that supports those affected, has created a “shame-free” guide for parents and carers on how to discuss visible differences with children.

As Phyllida Swift, CEO of Face Equality International notes, curious children are likely to point out a visible difference when they see one. 

FEI’s guide, Destigmatising Facial Disfigurement, encourages parents to acknowledge their children’s curiosity through open, constructive conversations which can normalise facial differences.

“So often, there is a real awkwardness and people almost avert their eyes and don’t know where to look and what to say,” Swift says.

“A lot of parents will want to drag their children away, but that has such a detrimental impact on the person with the facial difference because it happens to them day in day out and it means that human interaction is stifled,” she adds.

Instead of averting your eyes, or telling your child not to stare, FEI encourages people to “just smile”. 

This is because by not looking at someone with a visible difference, they aren’t acknowledged and embraced as human beings, Swift says.

“Children’s inquisitiveness is natural. They often simply want to know that the person with a facial difference is okay. Try to encourage conversations that will establish common ground.

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“For instance, ‘What’s your favourite movie?’, or ‘Are you having a good day?’. Shutting down questions would shut down an opportunity for your child to learn and to see people with facial differences as equals,” FEI said.

Equally, the guide points out the importance of not telling someone that you don’t see their differences or scars.

“Everyone deserves to be seen, in their entirety. Pretending that you don’t see an aspect of someone’s identity indicates to them that you think this characteristic is negative,” the FEI said.

According to a recent study published by the American Psychological Association, children as young as four years can have negative attitudes towards others because of physical appearance.

Swift says that to overcome this bias, there needs to be a massive overhaul of the way physical differences are talked about. One glaring example is the entertainment industry. 

“The offensive use of scars and hair loss to denote villainy or immorality, or to show that a character should be feared is a trope we continue to see played out in books, television and film. 

“Filmmakers and screenwriters don’t yet recognise the real-life harms these stereotypes cause, such as bullying, hate crime, and the further marginalisation of a community,” she says.

Adam Pearson, an ambassador for Changing Faces, says Disney’s The Lion King is a classic example.

“Take Scar, a villain whose disfigurement is so inherent to his evilness that he’s been named after it. Where are the good guys with disfigurements, where are the characters with disfigurements where it isn’t even mentioned?” Pearson says.

This lack of balance in representation is also seen across consumer brands and advertising. As per Changing Faces, two-thirds of people with a visible difference do not see themselves represented well in adverts, while more than 50 per cent believe those with visible differences are regularly ignored by brands.

“Representation and visibility are important for enabling someone with a facial difference to truly see themselves reflected in the books and media they consume,” the FEI said.

Swift says that while many of the negative experiences someone with a facial disfigurement might face are a result of “unwitting, well-intentioned awkwardness”, a drastic drive for greater education across key industries and within communities can “help us to make face equality a reality”.

She adds: “Education starts at home, and we want to guide and encourage shame-free, open conversations from an early age.”