Column: Albino headache

Tim Eggerding

Ron Howard has been named to direct an onscreen adaptation of the best selling novel The Da Vinci Code. The antagonist of the book is an albino monk named Silas. For almost a year groups such as The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation have been lobbying for Howard to omit the detail of Silas's albinism from the script. The director and his production company Imagine Films have not yet responded to their requests.

I hope when Ron Howard does respond he says, "How about you leave film making to the professionals. I don't tell you how to be an Albanian." In my imagination Ron Howard doesn't know what "albinism" means. Also, I am tired of everyone being so easily offended.

Celebrity dermatologist Vail Reese told an MSNBC reporter, "To keep [this] character with albinism perpetrates a stereotype that is pretty tired." I don't know about the rest of you, but I too am tired of the pigmentally challenged being vilified in film after film.

For example, in the classic American film To Kill A Mockingbird a recluse named Boo Radley - portrayed here as an albino - attempts to kill two innocent children simply because he lusts for virgin blood. Boo Radley actually saves the children from being murdered.

For the most part people listed as "albino film villains" are actually representations of vampires or the Grim Reaper and aren't pigmentally challenged - they're dead...and I don't care what anyone says, the Grim Reaper from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey was totally bitchin' when he played air guitar on his sickle.

In the movie Powder, the title character, named for his devilishly white skin, kills a deer in order to watch it suffer. For those of us who didn't see the film and may have pieced together this ignorant conclusion from the previews, Powder doesn't shoot a deer. A hunter does, and then Powder makes the man feel the pain he has caused the deer. Powder goes on to show the townspeople that even if you look a little different and have magical powers because you've been struck by lightning, you aren't necessarily evil.

Mike McGowan, president of NOAH, says that filmmakers' persistent portrayal of albinos as antagonists "does real harm to real people." I suppose it depends on what one considers "real harm." There are twenties upon twenties of films that represent albinos - or those that can be mistaken for albinos - as villains but is that a reason to change a detail of a film? Would it be any more ridiculous for me to complain that black-haired women with light skin are demonized on television and in movies?

There have been hundreds of representations of villainous black-haired women, especially in cartoons. For instance, growing up I used to watch a cartoon called "Lady Lovely Locks" in which the entire premise of the show involved the evil Raven Tresses trying to steal the blonde Lady Lovely Locks' hair. This didn't end in the dark ages of the early 1980's. It still goes on today in shows such as Kim Possible and in films like Men In Black II.

I suppose the vilification of albinos and black-haired women explains why there are so many albino serial killers, why Angelina Jolie is such a home-wrecking hosbag and why I'm such a raving bitch. The only thing that NOAH's objections are truly evidence of is that we are living in a society in which offending others is easier than ever and no longer allowed. At least when Ron Howard reads this article, as I'm sure he will, he will know that one person thinks that he should stick to the vision of whoever wrote The Da Vinci Code.

I think we have all learned an important lesson today. For some the lesson was to dry our eyes and learn to take the rough with the smooth. In writing this article I learned something as well. I learned how to spell the word villain correctly and I'm all the better for it.

Elizabeth Aleman is a senior in LAS. He column appears Tuesdays. She can be reached at opinions@dailyillin.com.