#physical appearances

[easternpine]

Aging

"Even now, I like to look in the mirror. Over the years, I’ve followed the progress of the wrinkles furrowing my brow. My cheeks have grown thinner and my lips have become pale, but it’s all me and I feel a sort of fondness for the reflection in the mirror. […] I’d walked for two years before arriving here, in this place which I call my home: so then I was just over forty. That was twenty-two years ago. I suppose I am an old woman, but I still love looking at my face. I don’t know if it’s beautiful or ugly, but it is the only human face I ever see. I smile at it and receive a friendly smile back."

-- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

[bonniebelleklyde]

i am,,,, in love with your writing 🥺

okay, miss bonnie ma’am, i have a question, do you have personal headcanons regarding the sides’ appearance or do you just go with them all having Thomas’ face?

Thank you!! I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying my writing :).

This is actually an interesting ask for me, and I don’t think I’ve talked about it on here before, but my thinking in terms of physical appearances is probably different from what you might expect because I have some difficulty visualizing faces. That comes from my having a similar difficulty recognizing people by their faces out in the real world. Prosopagnosia has been suggested but never formally diagnosed. Writing is actually a cool way for me to test my own visualization ability because I’ve developed a bunch of coping mechanisms over the years, and it’s nice to put them into practice without the pressure of having to recognize someone in real life.

One of my coping mechanisms is to look for other defining characteristics that don’t require me to have an understanding of the (to me) vague concept of a specific face as a whole. Is there a defining feature I can look for? A scar, birthmark, freckle pattern, etc. That’s one of the awesome things about Sanders Sides for me. The characters’ faces literally don’t matter! It’s all the same face! I can recognize them instead by their clothing which is not a problem for me at all. I’m also fine at recognizing expressions, and sometimes a person’s unique facial expression can help me recognize them, especially if I know them well. For example, my fiancé knows to smile at me when I look at him because I find his smile very distinct, and it helps me recognize him easily.

So yes, I do have personal headcanons when I’m writing the sides, but they’re the kind that help me keep them distinct from one another even when they’re not in their typical on-video clothing. That being said:

Janus is easy enough as is. His scales help me to keep him distinct in my mind in the same way that a distinct freckle pattern would be an indicator for me in real life. (And I do tend to replace his scales with freckles in human au’s!). I’ve also assigned him a rather distinctive grin.

Logan’s glasses help me out, but he isn’t always wearing them in my fics; plus, Patton has the same ones. So I give him unique eyes. They are darker than everyone else’s and a bit rounder and larger as well.

Patton always, always has curly hair in my mind. I don’t know where I got this from, but it’s there!

Remus has a big, toothy grin, and I’ll often see him with a scar above his right eye. Again, I don’t have a specific origin for that other than the fact that scars are something I look for when trying to recognize people in my daily life.

I actually don’t give Roman “extra” features most of the time. I think it’s because I always visualize him in red clothing— and I never visualize any of the others in red— and I tend to distinguish him from the others more from his voice than his appearance. He’s just...loud. In the best way!

Virgil’s eyeshadow is a godsend, much like Janus’s scales. As is his love of hoodies and his slouch. Sometimes I give him dimples!

I’m sorry if I did a terrible job of explaining haha normally I spend so much time compensating that I don’t ever end up explaining any of this. It was actually pretty cool to talk about though, so I’d welcome any follow up questions you might have!

[thebrightsessions]

Before Chloe officially met Frank, in episode 6, she said "Frank is his name I think. Or, it’s his name sometimes? That was a little unclear." What was that about? Was he dissociating? Getting identity bleed from the members of his his old unit? Secret drag alter ego?

hey, I actually have another question: would you mind establishing the race/ethnicity of your characters for us? that tends to become a real sore spot in podcast fandoms if left ambiguous

Answer 1: As much as I love the idea of Frank having a secret drag life, you’re correct: it was identity bleed from his unit. They are still very much a part of who he is. 

Answer 2: It is unlikely that we’ll confirm any physical appearances while The Bright Sessions remains in the audio format. I hope it doesn’t become a sore spot, but one of the reasons I wanted to make a podcast is so that people could imagine whatever they wanted.  

[thehumbleart]

And even people who say they don't care how they look care how they look. Everyone does. It's just some people think they look their best by looking terrible. It's a kind of arrogance, of course. I look like shit because my mind is on higher things, because I'm so busy I don't have time to wash my hair, because if you really love me you'll love me like this as well.

Julian Barnes' "Talking It Over" Quotes brought to you by the voracious reader of The Humble Art.

[introventalist]

Facade

I think the world would be a much better place if people just didn’t focus so much on physical appearances. I mean, when you think about your family and friends, it isn’t their physical appearance that makes you love them, but rather the support that they give you. The way that they make you laugh. All the times they helped you out when life just became too much to handle. The world has become so shallow and our behaviors reflect this. 

[the-wellness-witch]

Aging

So many people panic about getting crows feet. They're known by another name, "Smile Lines"

I love seeing people who aren't insecure about their smile lines. I love them. I think they're beautiful and adorable because they are evidence of happiness and laughter throughout the persons life.

Another thing many people are so horribly insecure about, and society doesn't help their anxiety one bit, is when they start to get white or grey hair. They panic and they dye it and they dye it over and over to cover it up. But the problem with repeatedly dying the hair is that it damages it. It will quicken the process of greying and it will thin out the hair. And there are other contributing factors to when the hair starts to naturally change color to greys or whites. If you do not eat healthy or exercise, and if you have high stress in your life...ESPECIALLY if there is high stress or depression in your life, it often contributes greatly to hair loss and greying/whitening hair. So changing your eating habits and your environment to a less stressful and healthier one will reduce your chances of getting grey or thin hair at a more youthful age. But something that everyone needs to come to terms with is that once you reach a certain age, it's completely NATURAL for your hair color to become grey or white and it's not something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. It is even natural for many middle aged people to get their greys and/or their whites in their hair.

Whenever I see a woman with long and healthy grey or white hair, I think it is gorgeous! Even the elderly women who have snow white hair I find stunningly beautiful, especially when you can tell that they do their best to take care of it.

I don't find greying hair on middle aged men as ugly. Especially when they demonstrate confidence and sophistication. It translates into their appearance and makes them attractive and dignified. And the elderly men that have full on grey or white hair are beautiful too, especially when they take care of it and take pride in it.

Aging isn't ugly. It isn't something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.

Aging can be scary, no denying it, and the responsibilities and trails are demanding. But it is not ugly! It is perfectly natural. It's a natural process that everyone and everything goes through.

We are not immortal. We are not perfect. We are human. And we age. There's no way around it. There's no avoiding it. But there are ways to preserve our health and our appearance. Just take care of yourself. And where your life process with pride, dignity, and confidence! Be a good person too. Be kind to others. Be helpful. Be understanding. Pay it forward in any way that you can as often as you can. Your personality and your actions also play a part in how beautiful or unappealing your physical appearance can be. That is a fact.

[dedinbed]

So my mom is telling my sister to take her glasses off if she doesn't need it

Cuz she just got them and she’s not blind or anything and wearing them 24/7 will make your vision worse (example, moi) but she says “you think you look pretty with those glasses?”

And I got pissed so I said “you can’t use that as a reason”

And she’s like “fine then wear it I don’t care if your vision gets so horrible and your lens are super thick”

And then I got even madder because THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT. I don’t want my sister to wear glasses all the time either but I just don’t want her to use physical appearances as a reason not to. The same way I don’t want her to use dark skin as a reason my sister shouldn’t stay in the sun too much. Or ugly fingers to get her to stop cracking her knuckles. I’m not trying to interfere with your discipline or whatever, I just don’t want the concept of beauty to be thrown it with it.

This pisses me off so much because it’s not the first time. I’ve told her not to say that but she just keeps going. Whenever my sister does something she doesn’t like (like the knuckle thing isn’t even anything bad but she doesn’t like it so she has to tell my sister that she’ll have ugly fingers when she grows up) she shouldn’t threaten her with “ugliness”. Because my sister is already self conscious of her body. She knows her thighs and legs jiggle and she knows she has beauty marks and that her skin is too dark or her hair too messy. I tell her it doesn’t matter and that she is beautiful no matter what BUT YOURE NOT FUCKING HELPING IF YOU KEEP PICKING ON HER APPEARANCES LIKE THAT

UGH I’M SO ANGRY I CAN STAB MYSELF UGH

[homecomingkingofspades-blog]