Facial Equality

Facial Equality: It Is Necessary To Create Spaces For ALL Faces To Be Supported And Acknowledged And Showcased. - by Rasheera Dopson 

So much of our everyday lives depend upon the quality and functionality of our face. It holds our identity. Our face is the center of focus. People use your face to understand your feelings, judge your character, evaluate your class, and predict your future. Did you know that your face is the center of your identity? Often times, people within the Facial Difference community have suffered identity crisis due to the differences displayed in our faces. Our society tends to see things in black or white. In straight lines or circles, round things or square things. Things that make logical sense. Things that have balance and asymmetry.

However, when we apply this same concept to our Faces, especially to individuals with facial differences it can bring up grey areas in interpretation. 

Our Faces are the first thing people see when they look at us. However, if our faces are crooked, abnormal, disfigured it can cause immediate misinterpretation. Triggering points in the communication exchange that something is wrong, not right or off… denotating to feelings of negativity or curiosity. Instead of acceptance, many people with Facial Differences experience rejection because our Faces do not align with the linear forms of logic, thus creating the invisible line of facial inequality. 

We are not equal if you refuse to showcase my differences on your platform.

In looking a the term Facial Equality, we have to look at what that means for our society and where people with Facial Difference fit in. We are not equal if you accept our disfigurements but not our beauty standard. We are not equal if you respect the fact that I am disabled or disfigured but refuse to showcase my differences on your platform. This is not Equality but separate but equal.

The current trend is more separate but equal.

As a black woman, I am all too familiar with the separate but equal clause- this way of thinking kept my grandmother drinking from a different water fountain than her nonwhite counterparts for over 50 years. And as a Black woman with a facial Difference, I see that the current trend of Facial Equality in the industry has demonstrated to be more separate than equal. This is why we have to expand the definitions of beauty and increase inclusion.

It is necessary to create spaces for ALL faces to be supported. 

This is why it is imperative that we show, support and increase awareness in campaigns ads, marketing agencies, and organizational structures, and show them that it is necessary to create spaces for ALL Faces to be supported and acknowledged and showcased in all industries at every level. 

Rasheera Dopson

Rasheera Dopson is the founder of Beauty with a Twist organization. Our mission is to provide a community that Esteem, Empowers and Educates individuals and their families who are affected by facial differences and disabilities.  As the founder, I believe it my purpose to share my experiences in living with a craniofacial condition. I aspire to motivate and encourage persons of the disabled and non-disabled community to use their differences to change the world. You can read more from Rasheera on her blog.