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First Online: 20 December 2019

Endnotes

: ¹ For further information see Scales-Trent 2001.² Here I use the term “normative identity categories” to describe primary identity categories (i.e. race, gender and class) that are typically assigned to people based on what their bodies seemingly suggest about them.³ For further information see Sanders et al. 2002.⁴ Here I have chosen to use quotation marks when describing people from both disease groups as patients because some of the people that I interviewed with vitiligo were resistant to this label.⁵ Note that there is currently no cure for vitiligo. For further information see: Porter et al. 1979,⁶ These symptoms typically occur after patients reach the age of 30.⁷ Whilst these symptoms are largely invisible to unsuspecting onlookers, it is possible for medical professionals who have heard of AKU to recognise these symptoms as signs of the condition.⁸ In relation to chronic pain and fatigue.⁹ Note that I interviewed one US patient in the UK and spoke with two other UK-based patients about their experiences using the National Health Service (NHS) in order to consider any interesting and/or relevant connections between the two countries.¹⁰ Note that participants are limited in their ability to control the amount of attention that their disease symptoms attract because they cannot control the individual subjectivities of the onlookers who criticize them.¹¹ Participants reported feeling particularly self-conscious when their vitiligo spread to these areas because they are immediately visible to onlookers.¹² There is a common misconception that vitiligo is directly linked to albinism as both result in a loss of skin pigmentation.¹³ This is, of course, largely dependent on the clothing that she wears.¹⁴ During her interview Claire described at length how she was often required to prove that she had a medical condition to others who, because they had not heard of AKU, did not believe her.¹⁵ Note that joint pain derives from a build up of homogentisic acid, which causes ochronotic pigment to form on the patient’s bones and joint cartilage, eventually leading to joint and bone deterioration and, often, chronic pain.