i don’t know what it is with people and treating people with albinism like we’re some kind of foreign creatures. i’ve had this happen to me personally and i’ve heard many stories of this happening both to my great uncle and some of my friends with albinism, but people have literally just started taking photos of us without permission? like we won’t notice or something. it’s incredibly bizarre and frankly it’s dehumanizing. when you take photos of us without our consent, you’re treating us like zoo animals. and it’s especially harmful to do that because we have extremely low vision and probably won’t see you doing that. the only reason i noticed was when my mom started cussing the woman out like..i don’t want to be on your phone. nobody wants to be in your phone. we have no idea what you’re doing with those photos, and again, we probably won’t be able to see if someone was doing that anyway. it’s inhumane and it’s honestly incredibly degrading. it’s not rocket science. don’t take pictures of people without their consent, whether they look “different” or not.
or the way people get excited when you mention you have albinism—not like “oh that’s super cool! i’ve never met an albino before but i’d love to learn!” but like “ohmygosh what you’re albino?? actually albino?? a real live albino??” like this is what i mean by “albinism is an extremely fetishized condition”. i get our looks make us unique. i get that it’s not every day you see someone with naturally white hair, pale skin and blue/purple/grey (somehow a mix in between all three idk how to describe it) eyes, but you don’t have to treat us like we’re some kind of subhuman caged animal. we’re human. treat us as such. we’re not below you.
