still, despite the admiration he has for bieber and his willingness to share his experience, somji also recognizes that opening up is not for everyone.
“it’s an immensely personal experience, and how somebody deals with it is going to be up to them,” he says. “some people are going to be very comfortable talking about it, and some people will really struggle with the feelings and the experience and the memories of they [used to have].”
but what somji wants the general population to know is that while people with facial differences do deal with stigma and discrimination, they also lead full, happy lives that aren’t defined by their conditions.
‘facial differences are often portrayed by villains’
“having a facial difference does not mean that [your] entire identity comes from that difference,” he says. “within the media specifically, those with facial differences are portrayed as villains who are have long, damaged histories and who are bitter about [their face] — i’m thinking of
every james bond villain
, or
scar from the lion king
.”
that stigma, somji says, comes from a lack of understanding.
“most facial differences are not common, but they’re not necessarily uncommon either,” he says. “we can normalize the idea of people with facial differences existing, and doing normal, regular everyday things… justin bieber is, in a way, normalizing facial difference.”
maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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justin bieber 'did something very important for the facial difference community'