'Hearie' and 'Deafie'...offensive??

sparrow2 said:
I never heard of the terms. I always knew both as either Deaf or Hearing
Click to expand...

Well, of course you haven't; you're an island onto yourself. :lol: J/K
 
well, for all of those who misunderstood the "undy" and thought I meant "undie"....:giggle:...I refer to mine as "Bloomers"...actually, (or I'm thinking) that "undy" might be used more in the South....??...as I, too, did not know what it meant until my friend, a good ol' Southern boy told me....(years ago).
 
I don't find either terms offensive myself, but I can see how some people may be offended. In my own experience, only one person I know has told me they were offended and that was a hearing person. Also it was interesting that the hearing person wasn't offended by deaf people being called "deafies", just the other way round. Because of this hypocrisy I like to call that person "hearie" even more. I'll stop on the day they learn to get offended on a deaf person's behalf!!!:giggle:
 
rockin'robin said:
well, for all of those who misunderstood the "undy" and thought I meant "undie"....:giggle:...I refer to mine as "Bloomers"...actually, (or I'm thinking) that "undy" might be used more in the South....??...as I, too, did not know what it meant until my friend, a good ol' Southern boy told me....(years ago).
Click to expand...

Thanks to the direction this thread is going I'm now getting Calvin Klein undies ads on the screen :giggle:
 
I'm not personally offended by either. (Of course being HOH, I don't think either properly apply to me) I won't use them, though, because I could see someone being bothered by it.
 
I don't like the term "deafie." I also hate for anyone to say I am "hard-of-hearing" *or "hearing impaired" versus deaf or Deaf if the person is aware of why I have given up on using those terms to identify myself (I don't mind if people use them to identify themselves). "Deafie" reminds me of the chant that my hearing brothers and my sister with APD used when we were young to mock, tease, and taunt me. They would chant "deafie duck and tiger claws; quack quack, grr grr!"

How this came about: I was ill-equipped without an effective mode of communication, but instead only ineffectual hearing aids that everyone around me in the Hearing World treated like a cure. I was trying to function like this in a hearing family, hearing school, and Hearing World. All of the work to communicate was left up to me and (except for my sister on some occasions) no one bothered to meet me in the middle. I would ask people to repeat and repeat (though sometimes it didn't matter how many times I asked, I couldn't understand them), only to be met with "nevermind" and "I'll tell you later" (and rarely being told later). Being stuck in that situation day-in and day-out for years, who wouldn't get frustrated.

So the Hearing World labeled me as "hard-of-hearing," as if I was "hearing", but it was just "hard" and I "should" be able to manage rather than it feeling next to impossible and hopeless, or "hearing impaired," as if I was "hearing", but it was just diminished and nothing I couldn't manage. The Hearing World also labeled my resulting frustration with the lot they had given me as just me having a "temper". So the Hearing World's label tried to make me something I wasn't (hearing) and my siblings' chant of "deafie" was used to make fun of the difficulty and frustration that only existed because everyone wanted to keep me in the Hearing World rather than being realistic and allowing me to embrace the Deaf World. So to describe myself, I don't like anything with "hearing" in it or something like "deafie" that only makes fun of what I am; I prefer simply deaf and Deaf.
 
How did this derail to talking about fruit of the loom and Calvin Klien undies:giggle:
 
Beach girl said:
That's how I feel too. It's not so simple to describe one's self as a "hearie" or "deafie" if someone is in that huge middle ground of using technology in order to hear.

If someone identifies one way or the other and wants to call themselves one of those names, I've got no problem with it. But referring to someone else - eh, that's different, unless you know for a fact the other person also uses the terms.
Click to expand...

I prefer the term "cyborg". It fits me well. :giggle:
 
Of interest to Steinhauer the term "cyborg" re: Hearing was used by Michael Chorost in his book: Rebuilt. 2005 to describe his new "self" because of his Cochlear Implant.He says that he is "somewhat a different person" because of implantation.

Anyone can read the book and consider if his/her thoughts agree that one's implantation does in fact result in them being "something different"- other than hearing now?Is your "thinking" changed?
 
DeafRaptor said:
I don't like the term "deafie." I also hate for anyone to say I am "hard-of-hearing" *or "hearing impaired" versus deaf or Deaf if the person is aware of why I have given up on using those terms to identify myself (I don't mind if people use them to identify themselves). "Deafie" reminds me of the chant that my hearing brothers and my sister with APD used when we were young to mock, tease, and taunt me. They would chant "deafie duck and tiger claws; quack quack, grr grr!"

How this came about: I was ill-equipped without an effective mode of communication, but instead only ineffectual hearing aids that everyone around me in the Hearing World treated like a cure. I was trying to function like this in a hearing family, hearing school, and Hearing World. All of the work to communicate was left up to me and (except for my sister on some occasions) no one bothered to meet me in the middle. I would ask people to repeat and repeat (though sometimes it didn't matter how many times I asked, I couldn't understand them), only to be met with "nevermind" and "I'll tell you later" (and rarely being told later). Being stuck in that situation day-in and day-out for years, who wouldn't get frustrated.

So the Hearing World labeled me as "hard-of-hearing," as if I was "hearing", but it was just
"hard" and I "should" be able to manage rather than it feeling next to impossible and hopeless, or "hearing impaired," as if I was "hearing", but it was just diminished and nothing I couldn't manage. The Hearing World also labeled my resulting frustration with the lot they had given me as just me having a "temper". So the Hearing World's label tried to make me something I wasn't (hearing) and my siblings' chant of "deafie" was used to make fun of the difficulty and frustration that only existed because everyone wanted to keep me in the Hearing World rather than being realistic and allowing me to embrace the Deaf World. So to describe myself, I don't like anything with "hearing" in it or something like "deafie" that only makes fun of what I am; I prefer simply deaf and Deaf.
Click to expand...

Beautifully written and heart-felt post.
 
Deafie is a shortcut for a deaf person and hearie is a shortcut for a hearing person. Black people invent alot of words that we never heard of before so why can't we?
 
No one is saying you can't. Some are saying they don't care for the terms.

Taking the hearing/deaf part out of it: some people are offended being called "shorty," "fatty," "skinny bones," "tall boy," etc., and some people use nicknames like that to describe themselves. We all have different experiences and different reactions to descriptive nicknames, however factually accurate they may be.
 
deafie or hearie, neither words bother me.

someone did try insulting me by saying with her voice in a sing-song manner ~
*signing* hearie on the forehead
Click to expand...
then I asked "how do you fuction with only two active brain cells?" it took her about five minutes to process what I said, then she stopped using her voice, got all pissy and started signing obscenities. :P obscenities are about all of the knowledge I have of signing. Oddball thought me
giggle.gif
 
I have no problem with those terms, but I don't always use them in case someone doesn't know the meaning and might be offended.



Oh, I forgot to mention: In Germany we don't have short terms for either. Sad thing is, most hearing people still use deaf mute, they never heard of the other word (You say "Taubstumm" for deaf mute and "Gehörlos" for deaf, even though it means "without hearing". So many people really don't know that it is okay to use one word an not okay to use the other one.)
 
drphil said:
Of interest to Steinhauer the term "cyborg" re: Hearing was used by Michael Chorost in his book: Rebuilt. 2005 to describe his new "self" because of his Cochlear Implant.He says that he is "somewhat a different person" because of implantation.

Anyone can read the book and consider if his/her thoughts agree that one's implantation does in fact result in them being "something different"- other than hearing now?Is your "thinking" changed?
Click to expand...

Yes, thinking does change when you can hear. That is why the sign for a deaf person who thinks like a hearing person is a derogatory sign.
 
Back
Top