Albinism and Harry Potter

I went back and forth about making a post about this topic for a few weeks thinking it was an important thing to put out there since it is controversial in the albinism community, while also thinking it was so ridiculous it didn't warrant an entire post. Obviously the first argument won.

For those of you who don't have albinism or know anyone with albinism, you probably don't realize how important the issue of how albinism and people with albinism are portrayed in pop culture is to many of us. I mean, if you think of all the characters that supposedly have albinism in movies, you'd have Powder, “The Albino” (as he's credited) from The Princess Bride, “The Albino Folk Singer” from Not Another Teen Movie, “Whitey” from Me, Myself, and Irene, “The Albino Twins” from The Matrix Reloaded, Bosie from Cold Mountain, Silas from The DaVinci Code, and several others, each of which is portrayed in a negative, inaccurate, and/or hurtful way. Due to all this negativity produced by Hollywood, a lot of people within the albinism community have become overly sensitive about characters that appear to have albinism and mentions of our condition in pop culture. As a perfect example of this over-sensitivity, I give you a list of supposed examples of albinism in movies; on it, you'll see everyone from vampires (how else are they going to be shown when part of their mythology is that they can't go in the sun?) to Bartok the Bat from the animated Anastasia! Now, I'm not saying that people with albinism have never suffered due to Hollywood's “creative” (is it creative when everyone does it?) interpretation of our condition (I know people have been terrified of me and told me it was because of Powder, I've been humiliated by chants of “Powder” in public, I've had the song from Not Another Teen Moviesung to me, etc.), but the over-sensitivity is not doing anyone any favors that much can be seen by these press clippings over The Matrix Reloaded fiasco.

But what does this have to do with Harry Potter? Well, as you might have guessed (or seen if you visited the links above), there are several characters from the series that many people believe are supposed to have albinism. The Malfoys are a prime example that is used. Narcissa is said to have albinism because it would explain her different coloring in her family (albinism is a recessive condition, so even if her parents and sister didn't have it, she could). That's a fine theory, but what are the odds that a woman with albinism (which is already a rare condition as only one in 17,000 people have some form of albinism) would grow up and meet a man with albinism who just happens to be a wizard. Now, I realize that, coming from purist families, if albinism was in one of their families, it would be in all the pureblood families somewhere, but then why aren't more magical, pureblood children born with it if so many supposed carriers of the trait are running around only marrying people who are very likely also carriers? Keep in mind that there are also several types of albinism (to learn more about the different types, you can go here), and Narcissa and Lucius would also have to carry the same form of albinism to pass onto their son Draco for him to have it as well, as he appears to if we're going with this theory. How do the Malfoys hurt people with albinism? Well, up until book 6, we're to believe that they're just pure evil. That changed after we saw a bit more of Draco and his family in books 6 and 7, though. Other than that, I don't think anyone would have any objections to these characters having albinism. (Oh, and their having albinism would also go along with the idea that they're fascinated by all creatures with albinism and, therefore, have the “albnio” peacock from book 7. Also note that some people with albinism would prefer animal-first language and have JKR used “peacock with albinism”, which I find ridiculous! I mean, I'm all for person-first language and dislike being called an “albino”, but the peacock doesn't know or care that it's being defined by its genetic condition!)

Then, there's Fleur Delacour and all the veelas in the series. Personally, when I read about these characters, I was thrilled! They were shown as the epitome of beauty, and they resembled my coloring...but I've already talked about that. When I ran and told my mom about them, she read the passages I indicated and was livid that JKR couldn't even make them perfect since they resembled people with albinism; she had to add that they turned into horrible beasts when angry. Now really, we can't expect all characters with albinism to be perfect, but I do get what she was saying. They still have a dark side, though not nearly as bad as the characters with albinism that are portrayed as omens of death or have supernatural powers that are uncommon in their respective stories. People with albinism are often shown to be Seers and/or have magical abilities, and this is often thought to be true by people whose only education on my condition is from the movies and TV. As I said, I've had people become frightened of me because they thought I might have some magical ability that I'd use against them (which I would think would urge them not to insult me, but that's obviously not the case because it would make too much sense...), but I've also had other witches ask if my ability perform magic was heightened due to my disability. Really? I always kick myself for not asking if theirs was hindered due to their ability to produce pigment.

And we've left the best for last, haven't we? Lord Voldemort. Oh, Lord Voldemort! He is the most cited case for an appearance of albinism in the HP series. My question to those that argue that he has albinism is this: Does he have vitiligo (which is often not classified as albinism) or is this a new form of albinism that one needn't be born with? It is clearly stated that he had dark hair when he was in school and it wasn't until after he graduated that he became pale, though his eyes had a “red gleam” in many of his memories from when he was in school preceding their complete transformation to red. (It should be noted here that people with albinism do not always or usually have red eyes; they might appear pinkish in certain light, but they are usually blue. Only animals with albinism have very pink or red eyes.) It was the Dark Magic and the splitting of his soul that caused his change of color; he became less human and therefore appeared less human and more like a mutated dead body. Well, while that may be, what does that say for people with albinism? I've just said that he became “less human” as he became paler. Are we less human? Well, no that's not technically what I've said, but it's the argument that is often used for his case. Villains are often pale and “creepy”,just as Voldemort is to dehumanize them, to set them apart. It doesn't matter that their look and limitations often lead them down the road to becoming a villain (as with Silas from The DaVinci Code); the people making most of these arguments don't care about three-dimensional characters, they just want good PR for people with albinism. Can you blame them after all the negative publicity our condition has gotten? Voldemort doesn't quite fit into that mold because his pallor came after his turn to evil, after all his experiments with Dark Magic and postponing death. Those had to take some sort of toll on him physically, one would assume. So, JKR was left with a few choices; she could go with the more used pallor of evil and red eyes, she could severely alter his pigmentation in another way (i.e. make him purple or pitch black but those would lead to comedy when it wasn't intended and racist remarks which would have been more public than anger from the albinism community), or she could have kept him looking the same with the evil lurking unseen below the surface. The last choice isn't very JKR to me, though it does have possibilities in my book. His soul was mutated, so his body must follow suit.

Let's look really quickly at what Skinema calls “Hollywood's Unwritten Rules For Characters With Albinism” and see if Fleur, the Malfoys, and Lord Voldemort fit into it, shall we?
1. Are Evil, Violent, and Make Excellent Assassins: Voldemort is certainly falling under this category as is pre-DH Lucius. Draco, Fleur, and Narcissa are left out. The transformed veelas are violent and might make excellent assassins, but it's never shown. (On a semi-related note, it always tickles me that characters with albinism are made to be assassins. All people with albinism have impaired vision ranging from just below normal vision to being considered legally blind...now that's an excellent choice for an assassin, isn't it!)

2. Are Scary: Voldemort and the Malfoys might fit well here as might the transformed veelas. Fleur never seemed scary to me.

3. Have Silly Nicknames: “Lord Voldemort” isn't very silly to me, and the rest aren't given nicknames to my knowledge.

4. Dress Entirely in White: Nope. I don't think Voldemort or the Malfoys are white-wearing kinds of people. In fact, do we ever see Voldemort in anything but black? The only time we ever see any of the others in white is on Fleur's wedding day.
5. Have Health Problems Beyond Their Albinism: Nope. None of them seemed overly sickly in the books, in fact I don't think any of them had any real issues related to possibly having albinism or not. I mean, Draco was a seeker for crying out loud; clearly he didn't have the visual problems associated with albinism (unless that's why he never caught the snitch first...).

So, take whatever stance you want on the issue of albinism in pop culture, but Harry Potter has no place in it since the only character we know of that had albinism was the “albino peacock” in Deathly Hallows. Perhaps he was an evil peacock that killed other peacocks, was always ill, was utterly terrifying, and was called “Whitey”, though. We'll never know.