What is that on your face?
8 May 2019
Follow Sharon ‘What’s that on your face?’ A brief explanation by Sharon on what it is like to look different.
"If I had a £1 for every time someone asked me that. Sometimes asked in the most random places. Supermarkets, toilets, changing rooms. The same question. Not ‘do you mind If I ask’ just ‘what’s that on your face?’ Sometimes, people forget, in their pressing need to have their curiosity met, that behind this different face, is actually a person. A person who just like them, feels, thinks, needs, wants. But no, these people put aside their empathy and ask like it’s their right to know why I look so different.
Maybe I’m being unreasonable. Maybe, by explaining that I have a birthmark, that I’ve had it since birth and it’s permanent, I could bring about some kind of knowledge into this world. Port wine stains, strawberry marks, all kinds of different words to explain different kinds of marks.
We live, we work, we have lives. We’re in the shadows a lot of the time because society doesn’t really want to show facial differences. Unless of course you’re a villain in a Bond movie. People talk about white privilege and it’s something that even as a white person, I’ve never known. Half my face and body is red. It always has been and it always will be. Believe me, the one person who’s found it hardest to cope with it is me. I’m the one who’s found it hard to except.
"If I had a £1 for every time someone asked me that. Sometimes asked in the most random places. Supermarkets, toilets, changing rooms. The same question. Not ‘do you mind If I ask’ just ‘what’s that on your face?’ Sometimes, people forget, in their pressing need to have their curiosity met, that behind this different face, is actually a person. A person who just like them, feels, thinks, needs, wants. But no, these people put aside their empathy and ask like it’s their right to know why I look so different.
Maybe I’m being unreasonable. Maybe, by explaining that I have a birthmark, that I’ve had it since birth and it’s permanent, I could bring about some kind of knowledge into this world. Port wine stains, strawberry marks, all kinds of different words to explain different kinds of marks.
We live, we work, we have lives. We’re in the shadows a lot of the time because society doesn’t really want to show facial differences. Unless of course you’re a villain in a Bond movie. People talk about white privilege and it’s something that even as a white person, I’ve never known. Half my face and body is red. It always has been and it always will be. Believe me, the one person who’s found it hardest to cope with it is me. I’m the one who’s found it hard to except.
After 40 years it doesn’t get much easier I can tell you. So when you want to ask, ‘what’s that on your face?’ just think for a second, would you want someone commenting? Blurting out a personal question in front of other complete strangers? Am I not entitled to go free and live my life without being an exhibit? There are ways of asking, without making me feel like a walking talking freakshow. I’m aware I’m different. It’s really quite exhausting some days, when you’ve been asked 3 or 4 times. So don’t be surprised if I don’t answer.
I’m human after all!"
You can read more about Sharon's story here
Sharon can also be contact via Twitter @specsygurl and @sharon_swins on instagram.
Sharon can also be contact via Twitter @specsygurl and @sharon_swins on instagram.
