TY - JOUR
T1 - Recognizing difference
T2 - in/visibility in the everyday life of individuals with facial limb absence
AU - Yaron, Gili
AU - Meershoek, Agnes
AU - Widdershoven, Guy
AU - Slatman, Jenny
PY - 2018/5/28
Y1 - 2018/5/28
N2 - People who lack part(s) of their face have a visibly different appearance both due to their facial difference itself and the medical aids that they use to cover it (e.g. prostheses, bandages). In this article, we draw on interviews with affected individuals in order to investigate how visible difference features in their everyday experience. The visibility of their facial difference, we show, comes into play as they interact with various others in the contexts of their daily life. However, respondents’ visibility manifests in different ways, depending on whether they cover or uncover their facial difference. These different modes of visibility make for distinct ‘visibility experiences’, as participants meet others who notice–or fail to notice–their atypical appearance. By exploring these experiences, our article provides insights into the role of visibility in interviewees’ everyday life, and demonstrates how they actively negotiate their social recognition within encounters with various others.
AB - People who lack part(s) of their face have a visibly different appearance both due to their facial difference itself and the medical aids that they use to cover it (e.g. prostheses, bandages). In this article, we draw on interviews with affected individuals in order to investigate how visible difference features in their everyday experience. The visibility of their facial difference, we show, comes into play as they interact with various others in the contexts of their daily life. However, respondents’ visibility manifests in different ways, depending on whether they cover or uncover their facial difference. These different modes of visibility make for distinct ‘visibility experiences’, as participants meet others who notice–or fail to notice–their atypical appearance. By exploring these experiences, our article provides insights into the role of visibility in interviewees’ everyday life, and demonstrates how they actively negotiate their social recognition within encounters with various others.
KW - Visible difference
KW - facial disfigurement
KW - facial prosthesis
KW - medical aids
KW - social recognition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044604348&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1454300
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1454300
M3 - Article
SN - 0968-7599
VL - 33
SP - 743
EP - 762
JO - Disability and Society
JF - Disability and Society
IS - 5
ER -