| Alan Breslau |
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| Alan Breslau suffered catastrophic burns - third and fourth degree - when the airliner he was piloting flew into a tornado on take-off in 1963. He lost an ear, an eye, his nose and most of the rest of his face. Like many burn survivors, his new face bears almost no resemblance to the way he used to look.
In 1972 he founded the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, a support group which slowly grew to its present size - about 8000 members. Breslau has written extensively about burn injury, and his latest book (about to be published), subtitled 'The Beauty of Disfigurement', places the standard response to faces like his - staring - in a Darwinian context. "People need to stare", he says. "In evolutionary terms, anything different from you is potentially a threat, and you need to look at it long and hard to figure out if it's going to harm you or not. So I don't think anyone should be afraid of staring. They need to stare." Breslau now regards the plane accident that almost killed him as "the best thing that ever happened to me. Looking very different has its advantages," he says. "People notice you and remember you. Because I’m so memorable, I have been given more opportunities than when I looked ‘normal.’ Other people try to stand out in the crowd by creating outlandish appearance. They dye and spike their hair, put rings through their body parts, shave their heads. But I still outshine them. No matter what they do to be noticed, they pale in comparison to me." |