Post by mistytail on Sept 25, 2012 21:18:24 GMT -6
Hey there! So, a popular trend in the Warriors fandom is to make albino characters. And that's really cool! Albinism is a very understudied and overlooked genetic disorder, and seeing people take an interest in it is a good thing!
Except, well, when they do it all wrong.
See, albinism isn't just magically having white fur and pink eyes. Albinism is a condition where the body does not produce enough pigment, which, along with making the skin, hair, and eyes very pale, also makes the skin very susceptible to burning from UV rays, and makes vision very poor, as the optic nerve needs pigment to work properly. (Scientists still aren't totally sure as to why this is, to the best of my knowledge.) Not only that, but a lack of pigment in the iris makes the albino person - or cat, in this instance - very sensitive to light, to the point where normal daylight is often painful. It also leaves most people with the disorder legally blind - meaning that they do have usable vision, but it isn't very good, and they are legally pronounced disabled by the state.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Because number one, most people don't know half of this when they start to write an albino character, and number two, albinism is a very complex disorder.
Furthermore, there are lots of things that are left out of even that very basic definition. I would like to use this time to use my experience as a person with albinism to discuss the various difficulties and differences from the experience of a normally pigmented person and illustrate how they can be worked into writing a believable and interesting character with albinism in the Warriors series. As such, I should put a disclaimer that every person with albinism has a very different experience, and it's best to look at tons of different sources to get a full understanding of what having albinism is like. You can check the website for NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation) for more
1) DON'T MAKE YOUR CHARACTER A VILLAIN
I ask you this first on the behalf of the entire albinism community. Please stop this. Please. Almost every single time an albino character is used in modern media, they're a villain. You may recall there was an outrage from the albinism community when The DaVinci Code was being filmed because of the portrayal of the character Silas. (He's literally described with glowing red eyes in the book. That is wrong on so many levels it makes me want to scratch all my hair out and drop it on Dan Brown's head.) There's a whole page on TV Tropes dedicated to the "Evil Albino" trope. Please don't do this. It's a lazy way of showing how weird!!! and out there!!! your villain is, and it's insulting to everyone that actually has albinism. I'm not saying this to restrict your creativity - in fact, I'm trying to encourage it by not having you stick your character in a tired, worn-out role that doesn't even make sense (which will be explained later).
2) Your character is going to be awkward growing up.
Let's face it: despite the fact that there are many white-furred cats in the books, if you make your character a pink-eyed albino, they're going to be considered weird by a good majority of the Clan/Tribe/other kittypets/whatever. (There are blue-eyed albinos too, so if your character if one of these, you can skip this section.) When a queen sees her kit's eyes open, she expects cute baby blues, not pink eyes. Your pink-eyed albino will also likely have red pupils, or at least pupils with a more reddish tint. They're going to be the Clan oddball, which means, yes, there will be a time and a place for your character to angst about being different. That's okay and acceptable. In fact, I'd say it's needed. They aren't going to be the most popular unless they really work at it. But in order to do that, they have to make peace with themselves. That's a good thing to write about. Just...
3) Don't make your character's albinism their only defining trait.
Seriously. Like people with albinism, your cat with albinism is more than their genetic disorder. They have feelings, skills, wants, needs, and desires - don't make them all directly correlate to their albinism. Just write them as you would any character that has some sort of problem - as a real, complete person that happens to have a problem.
4) Albinism comes with problems in depth perception, so there is no physical way for your cat to be an outstanding hunter or fighter.
I'm very high up on the legally blind spectrum, only just making the legal definition by having 20/200 vision with corrective lenses. (Not sure how this translates to areas outside the US.) However, I have a problem with something called "depth perception." Basically, depth perception is your eyes making use of binocular vision to help you judge approximately how far away things are from you. You can tell by looking how far away an object is, or how steep a stair is going to be, or if the ground is flat. I, and many other people with albinism, don't have that. Our eyes take pictures at /slightly/ varying rates, which kills our binocular vision. (And as such, we can't see the effects of 3D movies. Sucks, man.) As such, the world for us is flat, like when you look at a photograph. There are certainly cues so you can sort of judge how far away something is - size, lighting, if you can feel heat off of it if it's a warm object, stuff like that - but the whole world is basically flat. Spatial thought and memory is really poor, because we have no way to judge space. Therefore, your warrior will probably miss a lot when they first learn to hunt or fight, and will have to find creative ways to compensate for that. And even after that, they still most likely won't be a great warrior in those respects. However, this doesn't mean they'll necessarily be a bad warrior either. A lot of it will have to do with how dedicated your cat is to learning how to compensate for their disability - which they'll have to do all on their own, because cats would know even less about albinism than we do. They probably don't even have a word for it. But, if you feel that your cat just really isn't fit for the warrior life, don't fret, because...
5) You can make your cat a medicine cat .
I know I said "albino warrior" in the title, but I don't think I've ever seen an albino character that was a medicine cat, so I'm putting it down here. This would be a good position for your cat, because A) they would be spending lots of time in the shade, so there's a low chance of getting sunburn, B) your cat can judge what herbs are what by smell rather than sight, so even if their vision is very, very poor, they can still do their job well, and C) you don't have to think about whether or not their offspring would also have albinism or be carriers of the gene. This could also be used to show a kind, studious cat that wants to help others, a direct opposite to the "Evil Albino" trope, which would be really highly appreciated.
6) You really should think about if/when your cat has kits.
Consider: Your cat knows they were born with something that makes them different than every other cat. They were born with something that made their lives harder for them than every other cat. Do they really want to run the risk of having kits and possibly passing this on? Also know that albinism is a recessive gene, so even if no one else in the Clan shows they have albinism, any one of them could still be carrying the gene. Therefore, if your cat mates with another cat that carries the gene, there's a 50% chance a kit could be born with albinism, and a 100% chance that all the kits will carry it, even if the other cat does not carry the gene. So keep that in mind if your cat decides to have kits.
7) Your cat will most likely die a horrible and young death.
Sad, but true. There are many reasons your cat could die. They could develop skin cancer from being burned too many times. They could get hit by a car. They could be killed by an enemy warrior. They could be eaten by a fox or a badger. Keeping their poor vision and sensitivity to UV rays in mind, your cat probably won't make it too long in the wild. Unless your medicine cat discovers a way to make the equivalent of kitty sunscreen out of herbs, your cat probably will wind up getting cancer if they live long enough. Just keep that in mind.
So those are some of the basics. If you have any more questions or need something clarified, feel free to ask here! I'm always open to talking and educating people about albinism the best I can. Good luck and happy writing!
Except, well, when they do it all wrong.
See, albinism isn't just magically having white fur and pink eyes. Albinism is a condition where the body does not produce enough pigment, which, along with making the skin, hair, and eyes very pale, also makes the skin very susceptible to burning from UV rays, and makes vision very poor, as the optic nerve needs pigment to work properly. (Scientists still aren't totally sure as to why this is, to the best of my knowledge.) Not only that, but a lack of pigment in the iris makes the albino person - or cat, in this instance - very sensitive to light, to the point where normal daylight is often painful. It also leaves most people with the disorder legally blind - meaning that they do have usable vision, but it isn't very good, and they are legally pronounced disabled by the state.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Because number one, most people don't know half of this when they start to write an albino character, and number two, albinism is a very complex disorder.
Furthermore, there are lots of things that are left out of even that very basic definition. I would like to use this time to use my experience as a person with albinism to discuss the various difficulties and differences from the experience of a normally pigmented person and illustrate how they can be worked into writing a believable and interesting character with albinism in the Warriors series. As such, I should put a disclaimer that every person with albinism has a very different experience, and it's best to look at tons of different sources to get a full understanding of what having albinism is like. You can check the website for NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation) for more
1) DON'T MAKE YOUR CHARACTER A VILLAIN
I ask you this first on the behalf of the entire albinism community. Please stop this. Please. Almost every single time an albino character is used in modern media, they're a villain. You may recall there was an outrage from the albinism community when The DaVinci Code was being filmed because of the portrayal of the character Silas. (He's literally described with glowing red eyes in the book. That is wrong on so many levels it makes me want to scratch all my hair out and drop it on Dan Brown's head.) There's a whole page on TV Tropes dedicated to the "Evil Albino" trope. Please don't do this. It's a lazy way of showing how weird!!! and out there!!! your villain is, and it's insulting to everyone that actually has albinism. I'm not saying this to restrict your creativity - in fact, I'm trying to encourage it by not having you stick your character in a tired, worn-out role that doesn't even make sense (which will be explained later).
2) Your character is going to be awkward growing up.
Let's face it: despite the fact that there are many white-furred cats in the books, if you make your character a pink-eyed albino, they're going to be considered weird by a good majority of the Clan/Tribe/other kittypets/whatever. (There are blue-eyed albinos too, so if your character if one of these, you can skip this section.) When a queen sees her kit's eyes open, she expects cute baby blues, not pink eyes. Your pink-eyed albino will also likely have red pupils, or at least pupils with a more reddish tint. They're going to be the Clan oddball, which means, yes, there will be a time and a place for your character to angst about being different. That's okay and acceptable. In fact, I'd say it's needed. They aren't going to be the most popular unless they really work at it. But in order to do that, they have to make peace with themselves. That's a good thing to write about. Just...
3) Don't make your character's albinism their only defining trait.
Seriously. Like people with albinism, your cat with albinism is more than their genetic disorder. They have feelings, skills, wants, needs, and desires - don't make them all directly correlate to their albinism. Just write them as you would any character that has some sort of problem - as a real, complete person that happens to have a problem.
4) Albinism comes with problems in depth perception, so there is no physical way for your cat to be an outstanding hunter or fighter.
I'm very high up on the legally blind spectrum, only just making the legal definition by having 20/200 vision with corrective lenses. (Not sure how this translates to areas outside the US.) However, I have a problem with something called "depth perception." Basically, depth perception is your eyes making use of binocular vision to help you judge approximately how far away things are from you. You can tell by looking how far away an object is, or how steep a stair is going to be, or if the ground is flat. I, and many other people with albinism, don't have that. Our eyes take pictures at /slightly/ varying rates, which kills our binocular vision. (And as such, we can't see the effects of 3D movies. Sucks, man.) As such, the world for us is flat, like when you look at a photograph. There are certainly cues so you can sort of judge how far away something is - size, lighting, if you can feel heat off of it if it's a warm object, stuff like that - but the whole world is basically flat. Spatial thought and memory is really poor, because we have no way to judge space. Therefore, your warrior will probably miss a lot when they first learn to hunt or fight, and will have to find creative ways to compensate for that. And even after that, they still most likely won't be a great warrior in those respects. However, this doesn't mean they'll necessarily be a bad warrior either. A lot of it will have to do with how dedicated your cat is to learning how to compensate for their disability - which they'll have to do all on their own, because cats would know even less about albinism than we do. They probably don't even have a word for it. But, if you feel that your cat just really isn't fit for the warrior life, don't fret, because...
5) You can make your cat a medicine cat .
I know I said "albino warrior" in the title, but I don't think I've ever seen an albino character that was a medicine cat, so I'm putting it down here. This would be a good position for your cat, because A) they would be spending lots of time in the shade, so there's a low chance of getting sunburn, B) your cat can judge what herbs are what by smell rather than sight, so even if their vision is very, very poor, they can still do their job well, and C) you don't have to think about whether or not their offspring would also have albinism or be carriers of the gene. This could also be used to show a kind, studious cat that wants to help others, a direct opposite to the "Evil Albino" trope, which would be really highly appreciated.
6) You really should think about if/when your cat has kits.
Consider: Your cat knows they were born with something that makes them different than every other cat. They were born with something that made their lives harder for them than every other cat. Do they really want to run the risk of having kits and possibly passing this on? Also know that albinism is a recessive gene, so even if no one else in the Clan shows they have albinism, any one of them could still be carrying the gene. Therefore, if your cat mates with another cat that carries the gene, there's a 50% chance a kit could be born with albinism, and a 100% chance that all the kits will carry it, even if the other cat does not carry the gene. So keep that in mind if your cat decides to have kits.
7) Your cat will most likely die a horrible and young death.
Sad, but true. There are many reasons your cat could die. They could develop skin cancer from being burned too many times. They could get hit by a car. They could be killed by an enemy warrior. They could be eaten by a fox or a badger. Keeping their poor vision and sensitivity to UV rays in mind, your cat probably won't make it too long in the wild. Unless your medicine cat discovers a way to make the equivalent of kitty sunscreen out of herbs, your cat probably will wind up getting cancer if they live long enough. Just keep that in mind.
So those are some of the basics. If you have any more questions or need something clarified, feel free to ask here! I'm always open to talking and educating people about albinism the best I can.
Good luck and happy writing!
I'm glad to help people out owo Just remember it never hurts to look up more information uwu