- One of my friends was like, oh, you could totally
date a fat girl, 'cause you know, it doesn't matter.
And I'm like, well I mean I have to be
attracted to someone.
- My name is Mac Potts.
I was born blind.
- I am Cindy, and I'm currently totally blind.
- I was sighted most my life,
and just the last nine years
I've lived a blind life.
(sighs)
- I think there's a perception amongst sighted people
that blind people don't give a shit about what
other people look like because we can't see them.
- I think I'm pretty shallow, just like everyone else.
- People tell me all the time that I am,
and you know, I am thin, and I know that I have nice hair,
partly because my hair is soft.
So, I know that I am attractive, but I wouldn't
know it to compare it to if I could suddenly
see myself in a mirror.
- Appearances is very important, and I try to
be very presentable.
- I still live in the world
that everyone else lives in.
I pick up on all the ways that we're shallow.
(laughs)
And I'm okay with that, right.
I don't wanna be some saintly person
just because, like, blindness has turned
me into a saint.
That's a lie.
(laughs)
- I guess other senses kick in.
Just the tenderness, the smoothness, the...
I guess you could say, the shape.
- It's little things.
It's like a sound, or a scent, or a touch.
And it all builds into this generalized thing.
- Sometimes I'll hold onto their elbow like,
if we're walking together, and so you can sometimes tell
from little things.
Or if you kind of give a small hug at the end of the night.
- There might be times where I might give someone a hug,
and be like, that feels like she might have a nice figure,
but I'm not going to like, feel her up because
that's not appropriate.
- I'm single.
Yes.
(laughs)
Through our conversational cues, you can pick up
if someone goes to the gym.
Yeah. I know; eventually people are gonna tell me
they go to the gym.
- That's a Hollywood myth.
Actually feeling someone's face; that's a silly thing to do.
- I would be very uncomfortable if someone
touched my face.
I don't care if they're blind.
I don't know where your hands have been,
so that's gross.
- People tell me all the time.
Oh wow, you got lucky; she's gorgeous, she's a looker,
she's cute, she's a hot one.
- I've had people influence me
like, this person's super hot, or meh.
- Just from their reaction of like, oh, he looks good,
or something like that.
I was kinda like, okay, he's good.
I think I was not really super concerned
at someone describing individual features, but more
the affirmation from my friends that someone was cute.
I wanna be seen with attractive people.
- It does make me feel more validated.
Like, oh yeah, you know, I'm making you jealous now.
Obviously, you're looking at her like, oh, don't you wish...
Don't you wish she was yours?
But no, she's mine.
- I mean, I experienced in my partner, like I know
how I think about, visualize, have a representation of her.
You know, I see that in my mind.
It's kinda like,
when you know something.
And for me, I experience things through touch
and through, like I was saying, like sensation and stuff.
- One of the first intimate things I did with her
was take her hand and, I liked how it, you know,
fit with mine.
- I don't look at it as visual beauty,
I receive it as what they project to me; their heart.
- I don't think vision really plays that big
of a role in beauty.
I think it's the whole experience.