She's not the asshole

There is an interesting subreddit called AmITheAsshole, to which participants submit incidents or sketches from their life and ask others the question in the title. Redditors then vote.  The lady pictured above asked:

AITA for leaving significant facial scarring uncovered on a plane and being confrontational when a father asked me to cover it because it was scaring his son?

Here's her full story:

I sustained very bad injuries to my face this month. I'm in the stage of healing when the scar tissue has formed, but it's still very tender "new skin". I'm going to have very obvious facial scarring for the rest of my life. The injury starts about an inch above my hairline, goes down over my brow so that on part, hair will not grow. It continues down my cheek where it is deepest; I'll always probably have an indentation in the fullest part of my cheek. Then it continues to my jawline.

In some ways it's OK. I'm happy it's just cosmetic damage. My friends are super reassuring, telling me how badass and sick it's gonna look. They say I'm still as hot as ever, now a little more sexy and mysterious lol.

But in some ways it really sucks... I know that I'm always gonna be seen first as "the girl with the scar" and it feels especially bad when people look at me differently.

This week, I had to fly home for a family thing; it was a plan I'd made long before my injury. I wasn't really looking forward to the pity or people making a big deal of it; I'd rather it not be acknowledged.

I'd also met with my dermatologist who said that I was at the stage of scar tissue formation that I no longer should be dressing the wounds; the skin was healing and instead I needed to be applying topical cream and Vaseline to keep the site clean and moist.

It also looks a bit ugly; the building scar tissue is very red and tender, and with the Vaseline over it, looks slick and shiny.

So I get on this flight; I have the window seat and I put on my headphones and drift off to sleep when the plane is still boarding.

I wake up to this kid, maybe 4 years old, sat next to me, throwing a tantrum. I didn't catch the first part of it and I honestly couldn't understand what he was yelling about...

His father said to me, "Can you cover that injury?"

I said that my dermatologist recommends I don't, so no I don't think I will.

He started snapping at me saying "there is no need to be so rude. That injury is graphic and it's scaring my little one."

I said "this is my face. The only damn face I've got. It sucks being told I'm so ugly I can't show my goddamn face in public."

He started to backtrack saying "just until it's healed" and I said "it'll always be with me. Maybe teach some fucking compassion and respect instead of telling a girl half your damn age what you think about her face. That's rude.

He actually got up after that and I think went to a stewardess about a seat change because a young couple came to sit next to me on a few minutes instead. I've gotta admit I felt so low that I put on my sunglasses and had a quiet cry for a few minutes.

AITA for not covering my healing scar, and for being confrontational about it?

The Redditor community voted her "Not the A-hole."  

Via Bored Panda, which offers a selection of relevant comments from the rather long original thread.