YOUR GAZE IS DOWN; MY FEATURES ARE REAL

Before anyone speaks, the gaze has already decided.In Your Gaze Is Down; My Features Are Real, Leonidas Costa examines how a single look can shrink a person to a label, a diagnosis, or a limit, and what changes when we learn to see differently.Drawing on thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Erving Goffman, Emmanuel Levinas, Paulo Freire, and Axel Honneth, this essay explores how society invents "e;normal,"e; why inclusion so often stops at the facade, and how affection can quietly turn into control. It also asks what it takes to support someone without deciding for them.The book moves in three parts: the gaze that holds, the wall and the door, and the gaze that frees. Short personal interludes break up the argument, and each chapter closes with a box called "e;In plain words,"e; written in simple language so the ideas can be used by everyone.For families, educators, health professionals, managers, and anyone who has ever looked at another person without noticing the habit behind it. A clear, humane invitation to disarm our own gaze.