“I don’t want people to see me in public. I don’t want to get the Tube or the bus.”
Naomi Oni, a twenty year old former Victoria’s Secret model, was brutally attacked with a bottle of sulphuric acid as she stepped off a bus last December. Why? Because an anonymous stranger did not approve of her career and therefore felt it was acceptable to commit this cruel and vicious crime. Consequently, the life of a beautiful woman aspiring to study media and fashion has been ruined.
So what happens now? In just a few seconds she has become an outcast. After previously receiving attention for her obvious beauty, she will now turn heads for different reasons. Naomi can no longer stand the thought of leaving her house. Katie Piper, another acid-attack victim, felt similarly after her attack in 2008, believing her life to be over. Nonetheless, she has gradually come to terms with her new image and most importantly, the incident forced her to realise that her “previous life was superficial”. Must we all have our faces disfigured to realise the wrongs of our shallow attitude?
Programmes such as Channel 4’s ‘The Undateables’ and ‘Beauty and The Beast: Ugly Face of Prejudice’ merely fuel our obsession with appearance. By ridiculing those who do not satisfy the physical standards of society, it is now commonly accepted that the physically disfigured will never find love. Are these documentaries really educating us? Or, are they simply a contemporary Victorian freak show? A persons’ appearance should not be at the mercy of modern entertainment culture and we are all guilty of maintaining this norm.
Every Saturday night, like many others, I religiously watch a reality TV show which consists of women displaying their dissatisfaction at a male contestant’s physical appearance through the medium of a light. Whist seemingly trivial, programs like Take Me Out certainly reinforce this shallow norm. Unfortunately, this image obsession manifested itself at York University with the creation of ‘York: Spotted’. Gone are the days when we could stumble into the library the morning after a night out, make-upless, Willow-stamped and defensively wrapped up in the baggiest hoody we own.
This leads us to question: have we forgotten our internal selves? Are we even capable of seeing past a face anymore? Let us learn from the horrific experiences of Naomi Oni and Katie Piper, and demand that appearance does not become the sole measure of human worth.
I wish to believe that most halfway educated people would agree on the statment that ‘looks aren’t everything’. Especially when it comes to the relations which actually matter, friendships and relationships, most of us would put a heavier focus on the character than the physical appearance.
One cannot deny that there are environmental factors causing us to like or dislike certain aspects of a person’s appearance. But that does not restrain us to only liking Vogue models.
The best way to fight this superficiality is by ignoring it. Don’t give in to the hype that these shows and the beauty craze of our society create. Anyone worried about this craze is most likely to have succumed to it already.
Continue going to the library in your comfy clothes. Anything is fine, as long as you have a certain standard of personal hygiene. You have to start with yourself if you don’t want appearances to ‘become the sole measure of human worth’, do not judge others by their looks, give them a chance first. But foremost: Feel good about yourself. A person who has no self-esteem or self-respect cannot have any for others.
This article is all over the place. Naomi Oni and Katie Piper were disfigured in acid attacks, which caused BURNS as well as PARTIAL-BLINDNESS in both cases. Katie Piper also had to be tube fed for a while as her throat was burned, and Naomi Oni was the sole carer of her disabled mother.
Also the police are still investigating the circumstances surroubnding Naomi Oni, and it has not been confirmed that an anonymous person disagreed with her career choice to be a Victoria’s Secrets sales assistant so this is poor journalism on your part.
Furthermore, Naomi Oni was a black woman living in a predominately white working class area – Dagenham. It is more likely that a white BNP member/racist dressed up in a muslim niqab and then poured acid on the young black woman.
Neither Naomi Oni nor Katie Piper have become outcasts, they have become spokespersons for providing victim support to acid burns survivors.
Your article is misguided I am afraid/
EndShoddyJournalism
Thanks for your comment but I suggest you rethink your critique.
Your first paragraph is simply irrelevant to the overall message of the piece- how do the exact details of each acid attack relate to the author’s argument about Britain’s obsession with physical appearance?
Secondly, you may be right in arguing that the author has over claimed certain details about the attack but simply offering speculation as a viable alternative doesn’t exactly further your desire to “EndShoddyJournalism”.
Finally, I would urge you to think less about the complexities of Oni/Piper’s charity work and more about why there is a need for them to fight for the public acceptance of disfigured citizens.
Keep up the fight against shoody journalism.