Deaf not different | The Vista

[AJWSmith]

I wanted to share this article I found today
Deaf not different - Opinion - The Vista - University of San Diego

In everyday life we never notice all the things we have, especially the infinitesimal things. The clicking of your pen, the pitter-patter of footsteps as you walk to class, even your own voice. All of these things seem totally unrelated at first, but if you take another moment to really think about it, they all have a similarity. They make sound. It seems so natural to hear a sound, but what if you couldn't? What if you were deaf? To some people, the thought of being deaf is mortifying. They just cannot imagine their life without music, talking and hearing every little thing that happened throughout the day, which is understandable. It is what we, as people who can hear, know.

We don't like to feel uncomfortable or put into a situation where we feel like a fish in a fishbowl. All eyes on us--whispering, pointing and staring in confusion or awe. Yet, this can be the daily interaction a deaf person has in a hearing world. Always on display and seen as someone different. The thing is, they aren't different. Not at all.

Over spring break I, along with my two friends Hanna and Jill, had an eye-opening experience when we met a girl named Anna. We were vacationing in Hawaii on the island of Maui and were off on a snorkeling expedition to the volcanic rock out in the ocean. It was a long boat ride so we could not help to glance around and take in our surrounding passengers, and that is when Anna caught our eye. She was signing. Even for me after being in sign language classes for three years, I was still shocked to see someone signing. It seems so rare and hard to come across, even with us living in a town that was minutes away from Fremont, the deaf capital of the world.

I knew from my sign classes that you aren't supposed to stare at the conversations for it is considered rude. It is the same situation in the hearing world if you were to walk up to a random conversation and just listen. It is eavesdropping all the same, whether you are deaf or hearing, you don't do it. However, none of the other passengers seemed to know this etiquette for all they did was stare at her as if she was free entertainment. Granted, it is hard to not look sometimes, for signs can be big and gestured, causing one to wonder what they are talking about. But after five minutes of watching, you should be done looking.

Both Jill and I were in our third year of sign at that time and wanted to talk to her. We thought it would be a cool experience to use our sign a little. We never would have thought of what was to happen next though. We told her dad that we knew sign and if she would like to talk to us we would be more than happy to. To our delight on the boat ride back from the trip she came up to us, excited to meet someone who can sign. It was like she was traveling in a foreign country and we were the first people she had met who knew her language. She sat down with us and we instantly hit it off. It turned out we had a lot in common. She is 18 years old and lives in Montana with her mom. She cheers, dances, she even has a boyfriend. We discussed dresses and our friends back at home and the colleges we were to be attending in the fall. She is just your typical teenage girl, except for one thing: she is deaf.

We signed the whole hour ride back, much to our passengers, and our surprise. When she left for a moment to grab her phone so we could exchange numbers, that is when I realized how differently people saw our conversation. The captain of the boat opened his window to exclaim how exhausted we must be after all of that signing. And people kept smiling at us like we were wonder children or something for talking to her in sign. It was weird and you could tell they had never experienced something like that before. To them, a deaf girl was just that. A person who you could not communicate with, for they are deaf. I think a lot of people were surprised by how us three girls could click so fast, even though one was deaf. They don't realize that nothing was different about her. She was only different because they made her out to be.

 

[Speedy Hawk]

That good read.

 

[deafbajagal]

I agree. Good read indeed.

 

[jillio]

You always come up with such applicable articles, AJWsmith. Thank you.

 

[TWA]

I have a more critical opinion of this, but I don't feel like defending it at the moment. I just found this too sentimental and counterproductive to true acceptance of deafness. The writer's intentions were good though.

 

[shel90]

Wow...amazing that to many people, we are a wonder when I see my life just like any others. Nothing fascinating about it.

 

[TWA]

Wow...amazing that to many people, we are a wonder when I see my life just like any others. Nothing fascinating about it.

That's the problem with the article. Even though the writer is trying to say there is nothing different about the deaf girl, the article romanticizes deafness and makes the girl into some oddity, and only the writer and her friends are able to understand her. It kind of sickens me really.

Furthermore, "deaf not different" is not true; being deaf is different! It's just that there is nothing wrong with being different. Differences like deafness should be cherished and respected--not sentimentalized and protected by gatekeepers.

 

[shel90]

That's the problem with the article. Even though the writer is trying to say there is nothing different about the deaf girl, it romanticizes deafness and makes the girl into some oddity, and only the writer and her friends are able to understand her. It kind of sickens me really.

Furthermore, "deaf not different" is not true; being deaf is different! It's just that there is nothing wrong with being different. Differences like deafness should be cherished and respected.

 

[Bottesini]

"She even has a boyfriend." That seems to imply they thought there was a difference.

 

[jillio]

That's the problem with the article. Even though the writer is trying to say there is nothing different about the deaf girl, the article romanticizes deafness and makes the girl into some oddity, and only the writer and her friends are able to understand her. It kind of sickens me really.

Furthermore, "deaf not different" is not true; being deaf is different! It's just that there is nothing wrong with being different. Differences like deafness should be cherished and respected--not sentimentalized and protected by gatekeepers.

You know, you are absolutely right. I guess I have just seen to much audist crap written that I get sentimental over someone trying to understand.

 

[TWA]

You know, you are absolutely right. I guess I have just seen to much audist crap written that I get sentimental over someone trying to understand.

Yeah, it's hard not to. We really want to support someone who goes to bat for us. The only problem is, you just need to be careful and make sure they're swinging in the right direction. I looked at this from a writer's point of view more than anything.

This young writer obviously has a good heart, but needs a lot more experience and education here. Just because she has taken a few ASL classes, doesn't mean she understands the social framework behind deaf and hearing relations.

 

[Buffalo]

That's the problem with the article. Even though the writer is trying to say there is nothing different about the deaf girl, the article romanticizes deafness and makes the girl into some oddity, and only the writer and her friends are able to understand her. It kind of sickens me really.

Furthermore, "deaf not different" is not true; being deaf is different! It's just that there is nothing wrong with being different. Differences like deafness should be cherished and respected--not sentimentalized and protected by gatekeepers.

Good point. How about that we are the same as in feelings and needs but different when it comes to language and culture??

Yes, Deaf Culture should be cherished and respected but I would love to see it protected from the daily assaults from AGB people, doctors, and others.

 

[TWA]

Good point. How about that we are the same as in feelings and needs but different when it comes to language and culture??

Yes, Deaf Culture should be cherished and respected but I would love to see it protected from the daily assaults from AGB people, doctors, and others.

Of course we are the same in the sense that we all share the experience of universal human truths (love, hope, dreams, etc.). But what is going on in this article is a very simplified and sentimentalized view of deafness that really, at the end of the day, makes no progress towards accepting deafness. Let's be honest: Deaf people are different. They have a different language, a different culture, different values, etc. The same way that Indian people do. The same way that French people do, etc.

When we teach our children to respect other cultures, we don't say, "Hey, they are just like us so we should accept them!" We teach them about the positive aspects of diversity, that being different is a good thing and enriches the human species as a whole. Of course, we should be careful to point out that all cultures have faults, and Deaf culture is no exception (which is why romanticizing it is not helpful).

Deafness is necessary and normal divergent from a homogenized view of humanity. You start teaching THAT and getting that view of deafness as the dominant view hearing people have and trust me, all the audism you worry about will melt away.

 

[Buffalo]

Of course we are the same in the sense that we all share the experience of universal human truths (love, hope, dreams, etc.). But what is going on in this article is a very simplified and sentimentalized view of deafness that really, at the end of the day, makes no progress towards accepting deafness. Let's be honest: Deaf people are different. They have a different language, a different culture, different values, etc. The same way that Indian people do. The same way that French people do, etc.

When we teach our children to respect other cultures, we don't say, "Hey, they are just like us so we should accept them!" We teach them about the positive aspects of diversity, that being different is a good thing and enriches the human species as a whole. Of course, we should be careful to point out that all cultures have faults, and Deaf culture is no exception (which is why romanticizing it is not helpful).

Deafness is necessary and normal divergent from a homogenized view of humanity. You start teaching THAT and getting that view of deafness as the dominant view hearing people have and trust me, all the audism you worry about will melt away.

How do we change their view on deafness when we are in the minority?

 

[TWA]

How do we change their view on deafness when we are in the minority?

By building bridges with the majority. How do you build bridges? By sharing the culture: Art, writing, plays, and the language. Why this and not, say, creating laws or writing academic books? Because it's all about reaching an audience. Artistic endeavors will always reach a greater audience than politics.

That's what the movie Redefining DEAF was about. If you look at all the movies and books and plays that have deaf people in them, all of them perpetuate this romanticized or sentimentalized form of deafness. And if it's not either of those, it's worse. These representations and stereotypes of deafness are very damaging. It doesn't matter if they are fictional, or "just a story." They have incredible power to misinform audiences. Conversely, they have the power to break down walls and build bridges. It's all in the hands of the artist.

 

[dogmom]

yeah, I remember seeing that line, the "she even has a boyfriend" and "she cheers, she dances" <sarcasm coming - OMG, you mean she's HUMAN>

by skipping over the actual differences that deafness entails due to an audist society, the perspective explored in the article de-values the nature of audism.

like saying "I don't see color" - well, that in itself comes from a privileged position because race as a social construct still affects daily interactions in the U.S.; "colorblind" can be a more "coated" racism. So, by referring to "no difference" in the article, we bring it back to "not different from 'US' "<that is, people whose ears physically hear>, which by such mindset implies:

1. "difference" = "bad" or "weird"

2. "hearing" is the default, that by which everything else is compared to, which perpetuates audism

3. ignores the realities of deafness and relegates ASL to a "cool experience"

and what gives the author the right to decide just cuz she and her friend wanted to practice signing, to get involved in someone else's vacation?
sure, it says the girl who they saw signing, welcomed their conversation.
Fine....but look beyond the actual words to what is represented in the attitude.

 

[TWA]

Excellent post, dogmom.

 

[dogmom]

Alex
and Jillio

 

[BecLak]

Wirelessly posted

Good point. How about that we are the same as in feelings and needs but different when it comes to language and culture??

Yes, Deaf Culture should be cherished and respected but I would love to see it protected from the daily assaults from AGB people, doctors, and others.

Of course we are the same in the sense that we all share the experience of universal human truths (love, hope, dreams, etc.). But what is going on in this article is a very simplified and sentimentalized view of deafness that really, at the end of the day, makes no progress towards accepting deafness. Let's be honest: Deaf people are different. They have a different language, a different culture, different values, etc. The same way that Indian people do. The same way that French people do, etc.

When we teach our children to respect other cultures, we don't say, "Hey, they are just like us so we should accept them!" We teach them about the positive aspects of diversity, that being different is a good thing and enriches the human species as a whole. Of course, we should be careful to point out that all cultures have faults, and Deaf culture is no exception (which is why romanticizing it is not helpful).

Deafness is necessary and normal divergent from a homogenized view of humanity. You start teaching THAT and getting that view of deafness as the dominant view hearing people have and trust me, all the audism you worry about will melt away.

Excellent post!

 

[BecLak]

Wirelessly posted

yeah, I remember seeing that line, the "she even has a boyfriend" and "she cheers, she dances" <sarcasm coming - OMG, you mean she's HUMAN>

by skipping over the actual differences that deafness entails due to an audist society, the perspective explored in the article de-values the nature of audism.

like saying "I don't see color" - well, that in itself comes from a privileged position because race as a social construct still affects daily interactions in the U.S.; "colorblind" can be a more "coated" racism. So, by referring to "no difference" in the article, we bring it back to "not different from 'US' "<that is, people whose ears physically hear>, which by such mindset implies:

1. "difference" = "bad" or "weird"

2. "hearing" is the default, that by which everything else is compared to, which perpetuates audism

3. ignores the realities of deafness and relegates ASL to a "cool experience"

and what gives the author the right to decide just cuz she and her friend wanted to practice signing, to get involved in someone else's vacation?
sure, it says the girl who they saw signing, welcomed their conversation.
Fine....but look beyond the actual words to what is represented in the attitude.

Very well put - great post dogmom.