Having recently undergone some abdominal surgery, I was quite naturally drawn in by the headline of this article that appeared in the online version of the Mail a few weeks ago:
How to stop yourself from being scarred for life after an operation
Just to be clear, it’s not that I’m particularly bothered about having a shiny new six inch scar across my bikini line. After all, I’ve had 4 children and a previous gall bladder op, all of which have left their mark, so it’s been a good few years since I felt the urge to actually don a bikini or parade around in a crop top with my belly exposed to all and sundry anyway. But I saw that headline and thought it might be worth reading on to see if the Mail had any decent tips on how to treat new scars, or to see if they had any advice to offer on how I could prevent myself being HIDEOUSLY DISFIGURED FOR LIFE!
So I clicked on the link.
And now I can’t decide if the Mail picture editors are completely fucking stupid, or if they’re simply painfully unaware of just how offensive they’re capable of being.
Why?
Because people with scars are obviously so HIDEOUSLY DISFIGURED FOR LIFE! that the Mail couldn’t even bring itself to illustrate the piece with an actual picture of one.
Oh no. Not for the Mail any pictures of real people with real scars. Real people with real scars are too scary and too HIDEOUSLY DISFIGURED FOR LIFE! for the Mail. So they chose instead the next best thing. They chose instead the image of a plastic doll. And not just any plastic doll I hasten to add. But Action fucking Man!
That’s right. Action Man! That would be Action Man, the child’s toy, who’s plastic, and who’s manufactured with a scar already on his face because his makers, Hasbro, think it makes him look more macho and heroic. The toy who’s got a scar because facial scars apparently:
“give Action Man a certain ruggedness and bestow instant testosterone on movie heroes, and according to British psychologists, facial scars can also make men more attractive to the opposite sex.”
According to the Mail: “One in three scars becomes a permanent, often unsightly, fixture, retaining a hard, raised ridge of uncomfortable tissue.”
Well yes, I imagine that they do. Especially if you’re made out of plastic.
“Some can even continue to grow long after the healing process.”
Hmmm, not sure Action Man’s going to have much of a problem with that.
“In a world where smooth, youthful skin is highly valued, it’s perhaps hardly surprising that the psychological impact of scars can be deeply distressing, particularly those on the face, neck, chest, arm or hand.”
Oh I dunno, he looks okay on it to me. I mean, I know psychological trauma can be hard to spot on the outside, but he really doesn’t look too distressed. What do you think?
Scar face: The disfiguring effects of going under the knife can be lifelong
And yes, that really is the tagline the Mail used to accompany the picture. Scar face. Does their sensitivity know no bounds?
Well, how about this line from later on in the article:
“However, disfiguring scars following surgery could soon be as much part of the past as polio or rickets.”
Or even the bubonic plague or leprosy perhaps. Or something else equally hideous and revolting that’s so bad the sufferer should be forced to hide away in a cupboard and never be seen again. Something so gross in its awfulness the Mail can’t even print a picture of it for fear of scaring away its readership.
Still, all’s not lost for our intrepid plastic hero. The Mail has some final sterling advice to offer him:
“Ask your GP whether you are eligible for scar revision on the NHS, or to recommend a private plastic surgeon.”
Yes, what a genius idea. The plastic man with the plastic scar on his face should go and see a plastic surgeon to get that hideous plastic disfigurement of his sorted out.
I know I’ve probably asked this before, but seriously. Are the Daily Mail just taking the piss or what?
Too Much To Say For Myself 
Apart from the obvious crap you have highlighted above there is some interesting stuff in the article. Am loving the vox pop of people being unhappy with a six month old scar and then fast forward a couple of paragraphs to read scars are still healing after 18 months.
I don’t have scarring on my face, but do love the odd little ones I do have from childhood accidents mostly and also the C-Section scar I have which crosses the hernia op scar nicely to make a perfect x.
Shame the Daily Fail article didn’t mention the Changing Faces charity which is a great: http://www.changingfaces.org.uk/Home
I have some wrist scars, an arm scar, and a nice little abdominal scar from surgery. I hadn’t realised I was hideously disfigured for life. Excuse me, HIDEOUSLY DISFIGURED FOR LIFE. Thanks, Daily Mail, for setting my straight on that. I admit my scars are minor, so I just think of them as giving my body character and being a sometimes conversation piece (“And, I got this scar from being stupid with a box-cutter when I was doing stock work in a supermarket one summer…”). Anyway, I think the Mail wouldn’t be the Mail if they didn’t sensationalise in a negative way an otherwise helpful article (because past that bit, as earwicga mentions, there is useful stuff). They have to make sure to uphold and reinforce the social policing of “acceptable” appearance. Heaven knows where we would be if we didn’t have those norms. We might actually think people were interesting and attractive in a body that bears the marks of an individual life’s journey. Oh noes!
Do you not think Action Man’s probably more distressed by having no genitals?
I know I’ve probably asked this before, but seriously. Are the Daily Mail just taking the piss or what?
I have long held the theory, Cath, that the Male is a complicated work of satire/performance art which is one reason I read it religiously (that and the fact that it’s 50p and makes me laugh at lunchtime.
I have an itchy scar and while I can do little about the appearance, the itching became so intrusive, especially at night, I was getting desperate. I went to my GP who suggested Haelon tape which I’m happy to say worked.
I found parts of this article very well informed, having done lots of research online about scars. However, I agree with you, it does fall down on the ‘hideously disfigured for life’ tag line.
i agree with cath – it;s the fact they have used action man as the illustration that is so overwhelmingly offensive, suggesting that people who have scars are too horrific to show in the paper.
rant!
i can understand why people want to reduce the appearance of scars or cover them up, however this does reinforce the message that you “should” do that rather than choose one way or the other.
sorry for the OT diversion, but I just read the most stupid comment evah on the Male’s article on the floods, and wish to share it…
do not hold my breath for other countries to offer aid for the problems we have with the flooding.
This goverment also needs to put a stop to immigration that way we would not need to build all these new houses which are taking up land which used to soak up the rain.
Common sense really.
Pure genius. Flooding is caused by immigration! Why didn’t Nick Griffin think of that.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229294/A-months-worth-rain-just-days-parts-country-forecasters-warn-end-sight.html
Lol Polly! Just need a decorated war hero being carried through the floods and voila – new BNP poster!
Did you read the comments under the scar article? This one in particular jumped out at me:
Erm, well that’s okay then. I think. But I suspect it might take a bit more than a drop of Bio-Oil to sort out why your daughter’s carving into her thigh with a knife in the first place…….
And that’s probably one of the most inappropriate uses of smileys I’ve ever seen!
Not a thigh or a knife, but we all carved our names into our skin with compasses when at school – lotsa people also put ink into the cuts to make it more permanent.
Ah yes, the home made schoolgirl tattoo. Also piercing your ears with a needle. (No I never did either, I am very scared of pain).
i have a lot of scars from when i was a teenager similar to the teen mentioned in cath’s post, although my mum didn’t find out in order to order bio oil for me! but when i was 18 and had pretty much stopped self harming (although i did relapse a bit a few years later) i got my tattoo as i wanted to make a scar on my body that was personal to me, and symbolised coming out of a dark period of my life and the other forms of scarring that went with it.
most of my scars are faded now but i have never not wanted them as they are part of me and my life, and although i wouldn’t want to repeat those years or the feelings that brought on the scars, that period was part of me and my life and my experience. i think this is why i love my tattoo so much – it was a moment of taking control of my body and making a statement with it. (even though it is very small and on my hip!)
but that’s only my take on scars, i totally understand why people don’t want to keep them and do want them gone. it’s all a matter of choice!
I pierced my ears (well numbed with ice cubes) with a (home sterilised) needle and never had a problem with them. That was, deep breath, 34 years ago and I still wear earrings through the holes I pierced!
sianuska – I’m really sorry you had to go through that.
polly and maggie – glad you said that, I thought after posting it that it that I rather looked like I was schooled in a borstal!
No, it happened at my school too earwicga. And I can remember my brother and his friend piercing each other’s ears in our kitchen one day while my parents were both out at work. They did the ice cube thing too.
T’was actually quite entertaining ‘cos my dad had done the whole “No son of mine is going to have pierced ears!” speech virtually on a loop since my brother hit his teens, so we all waited with baited breath to see how he’d react.
In the event he didn’t even notice P’s ear for about a month, by which point, when he threatened to explode with rage, everyone turned to him and said “It can’t be that bloody bad if you’ve only just seen it!”
That shut him up
Well, that time anyway…..
I so wanted my mum to be like that – she ignored me bleaching and perming my hair and also piercing my nose. I have found out since that she found it seriously difficult to hold back the words she wanted to say 🙂