A raccoon's face.

Caricatures

Caricatures often exaggerate facial features to make a face easily recognized in association with a pronounced portion of the face of the individual in question?for example, a caricature of Osama bin Laden might focus on his facial hair and nose; a caricature of George W. Bush might enlarge his ears to the size of an elephant's; a caricature of Jay Leno may pronounce his head and chin; and a caricature of Mick Jagger might enlarge his lips. Exaggeration of memorable features helps people to recognize others when presented in a caricature form. ^[3]

Individuality and Recognition

The face is the feature which best distinguishes a person, and there are special regions of the human brain which when damaged prevent the recognition of the faces of even intimate family members. The pattern of specific organs such as the eyes or parts thereof are used in biometric identification to uniquely identify individuals.

Metaphor

By extension, anything which is the forward or world facing part of a system which has internal structure is considered its 'face', like the facade of a building. For example a Public Relations or Press Officer might be called the "face" of the organization he or she represents. "Face" also refers to reputation or standing in society, particularly Chinese society and is spoken of as a resource which can be won or lost. Because of the association with individuality the anonymous is sometimes called the "faceless".

Plastic surgery

Cosmetic surgery can be used to alter the appearance of the facial features. ^[4]. Severely disfigured individuals have recently received full face transplants.

See also

• Diprosopus
• Face perception
• Loss of face
• Making a face
• Prosopagnosia

References

1. ↑ Dictionary.com
2. ↑ Anatomy of the Face and Head Underlying Facial Expression
3. ↑ information about caricatures
4. ↑ MedlinePlus: Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery