ENTERTAINMENT MANDY NOLAN’S SOAPBOX like. It’s the me without the
W W W. E C H O. N E T. A U / S OA P - B OX
FACE OFF
mask. I feel like a turtle without a shell. All squidgy and vulnerable. It’s like going out in the nude. It’s unnerving, because people get to see who I really am. Or at least This week I didn’t wear any makeup. what I actually look like. Somehow I never don’t wear makeup. It’s the two things seem intertwined. I been a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t realised in a way I have been using a choice. It was a directive. I had makeup as a kind of burqua. I feel a small skin cancer taken off my safe behind it. I am a feminist, so I eyelid and part of the recovery post- guess I should have been critiquing surgery required bare face. I have makeup as a time-wasting form of worn makeup ever since I was 16. oppression. But I don’t because I It’s weird looking at my face every think it makes me look better so I day completely unmade-up. My decide it’s acceptable, even though eyes look too small and even more men aren’t expected to wear it. squinty without mascara. My skin It’s pretty clear to me that ladytone is a bit uneven here and there. paint is up there with foot binding I look tired. Even when I’m not. To and clit removal. Less physically me, I don’t look like me, which is harmful, obviously, but part of the stupid, because this is actually me. same ‘there is something innately wrong with you, woman’ bodyBut it’s not the me I particularly
modification indoctrination. I decide to stay home. But that doesn’t last. I need coffee. So I guess I’ll have to go nude face. Every day I put on a ‘face’ before I go out. The ‘face’ I put on is the one I decide that people can see, not the one I really have. It’s a shield against the world. Red lips, pink lips, natural lips. Blue eyeliner, black eyeliner. Eye pencil. Sometimes shadow. Always concealer. At 49 I have a lot to conceal. I start under my eyes and then work my way down to my arse. Then foundation. I am currently a woman with no foundation. Unhidden. People look at me this week a little longer than they should. It could be the black eye. I know what they’re thinking. Some actually say it. ‘Did your husband‌?’ They say it half joking, because women with bruised eyes are unsettling. The bruise tells the secrets of what happens behind closed doors. I joke ‘you should see him’. It’s a stupid joke. People
laugh not because it’s funny, but because it’s a relief. Relief that the man who is my husband, whom they have grown to love, isn’t a wife beater, even though he wears the signature blue singlet. I’m surprised how many jokes I have to contend with about domestic violence. I have been a victim of domestic violence in my twenties, so I don’t find those jokes very funny. I wonder how people would react if they asked in jest if I’ve been punched by my husband and I say ‘Yes’. I wonder what they would say next. I’m tempted but I don’t because the flicker of shame still resides in me. I don’t want people to think I’m one of ‘those’ types of women. Even though I have been. And I know there isn’t actually a ‘type’. And it would be a bit unfair on John. To make him one of those ‘types’ of men. It is a small town, and that kind of insinuation sticks. So I find myself feeling a bit embarrassed about my black eye. ing to put an end to the largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world, the Canadian sea hunt. Sea Shepherd has also been opposing the Japanese dolphin whale massacre since 1981. Over in South America, Sea Shepherd Galapagos uses an array of tactics to combat illegal fishing and poaching inside the Galapagos National Park since 1999 when the National Park Service first invited Sea Shepherd to help protect the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD In 1977, Captain Paul Watson founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an international non-profit organisation whose mission is to stop the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans. Over the past forty years,
Sea Shepherd has continued to practise innovative tactics of direct action to investigate, document and take action when necessary to expose and prevent illegal activities on the high seas. Sea Shepherd’s first ship was a British-registered fishing trawler and was aptly named Sea Shepherd. Her major action was ramming and
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damaging the outlaw whaler Sierra and the campaign to find and disable the Sierra was Sea Shepherd’s first direct action. Since then, with support of donations and awesome volunteer crew, the fleet has expanded to include four large ships and eight coastal ships. Some of Sea Shepherd’s most wellknown campaigns include work-
Sea Shepherd’s Antarctic whale defence campaign began in earnest in 2002, with the sending of ships to the remote waters in the Southern Ocean to directly intervene against the Japanese whaling fleet that was illegally killing whales in a sanctuary that was in fact established by the International Whaling Commission. For eleven summers Sea Shepherd’s international volunteer crew have given up their Christmases and New Years to be the whales’ only hope, and have gallantly saved the lives of more than 6,000 whales from the harpoons of the fleet.
S A T U R D A Y
Just like I used to when it was from my partner. I volunteer the story of my skin cancer removal to strangers in shops who don’t care or haven’t even noticed I have a black eye. Or perhaps they’re used to seeing women like that. I seem to be very concerned that people know that this isn’t a domestic-violence black eye; this is just a cancer eye. (It’s not even proper cancer. It’s a startup. Kind of a trainee cancer for when I get older.) I know what the expression now means ‘keeping face’. The black eye has faded and now when people see me they say ‘are you okay? Are you unwell?’ No I’m not unwell. This is what I actually look like. A bit sick, apparently. A vision-impaired friend sitting a long way from me tells me I look better without makeup. That’s kind. Almost as kind as the woman who saw me naked and told me I look better with my clothes off. Watch out. This could be my new look. Sea Shepherd sail into action wherever they are called, protecting our precious oceans and beyond. Recently, Sea Shepherd has made a commitment to do whatever it takes to stop Adani and protect the Great Barrier Reef from the inevitable damage that would result from this coal-mining operation. As Sea Shepherd celebrate 40 years of direct action conservation, they invite the public to come celebrate at the Billinudgel Hotel on Sunday Steampunk Style with ElectroSwing DJs including Amazon, The Dokta, DJ XFakta, and Crystal Digit and special guests The Sea Gypsies. They will also be playing the new Sea Shepherd documentary Jeedara, which showcases and documents the beauty and uniqueness of the Great Australian Bight in an attempt to save the area from a proposed BP offshore oil exploration. Shake It For Sea Shepherd event kicks off at 2pm and runs until 10pm. As well as awesome entertainment and fabulous food, there will also be a fabulous raffle and a couple of market stalls!
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Yuki Taniguchi
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The Byron Shire Echo August 23, 2017 31