Do we have a challenge ahead of us to avoid becoming Hearing?

Great question: if the hearing world stops trying to fix deafness or view it as an abnormality and just accept it for what it is, we would have a much easier time integrating. Audist views are way too easily tolerated and accepted. Many many times I've seen comments posted here and there on the internet and thought "wow, if you replace the word "deaf" with "black" - you would be accused of being a big time racist, possibly receive some death threats and be thrown off the site."

In order for us to be able to integrate without losing ourselves, the hearing world has to first accept us "as is". How to get them to do that? Not sure.
 
AJWSmith said:
I thought it would be useful to share this from Paddy Ladd's book.

hearing/Hearing: The lowercase 'hearing' is a term originating in the Deaf community to describe non-Deaf people (including 'deaf' people). I have sometimes capitalised this to indicate an additional dimension expressed by Deaf people - for example, 'Hearing world' or 'Hearing Ways', akin to the capitalisation of 'White' or 'Male' by Black and feminist theoreticians.


Note how he labels 'deaf' people as 'hearing'. No wonder these debates get so muddled!!! It gets particularly confusing when an individual chooses a label for themselves and the same word gets used differently by another person, or the other person uses a different word to label you.

For example, I label myself 'deaf' to distinguish myself from a 'hearing' person. But a Deaf person may label me as 'hearing' because I'm not part of the Deaf community. And this labelling by Deaf people got my back up as I don't use the world 'hearing' to describe myself. But when I read carefully, I discover that the word 'hearing' is being used in a different way. I'm using it to distinguish myself from hearing people, Paddy Ladd is using it to distinguish me from Deaf people. We saw another example of this earlier between DeafCaroline and kokonut with the use of the word 'hoh'.

The important thing is to find the label you want to use to describe yourself and to be happy with it, accepting that other people may apply a different label to you. For me, I'm happy with the label 'deaf' even if I may get called 'hearing' or 'hoh' by others. I'm secure about being 'deaf' rather than 'Deaf'. At this point in time, though people may want to put these labels on me, I'm neither a Hearing wanna-be or a Deaf wanna-be. I'm just me.
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Precisely. If it makes you comfortable then why should it matter to others?
 
DeafCaroline said:
Great question: if the hearing world stops trying to fix deafness or view it as an abnormality and just accept it for what it is, we would have a much easier time integrating. Audist views are way too easily tolerated and accepted. Many many times I've seen comments posted here and there on the internet and thought "wow, if you replace the word "deaf" with "black" - you would be accused of being a big time racist, possibly receive some death threats and be thrown off the site."

In order for us to be able to integrate without losing ourselves, the hearing world has to first accept us "as is". How to get them to do that? Not sure.
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1. The unashamed, bold use of sign language in public regardless of the status (whether they can sign or not) of the person we are communicating with.

2. We go about making sure that the situation and surroundings are suited and geared for us.

3. We do what is necessary and stop waiting for the general public to catch up.

Just to name a few.
 
DeafCaroline said:
Great question: if the hearing world stops trying to fix deafness or view it as an abnormality and just accept it for what it is, we would have a much easier time integrating. Audist views are way too easily tolerated and accepted. Many many times I've seen comments posted here and there on the internet and thought "wow, if you replace the word "deaf" with "black" - you would be accused of being a big time racist, possibly receive some death threats and be thrown off the site."

In order for us to be able to integrate without losing ourselves, the hearing world has to first accept us "as is". How to get them to do that? Not sure.
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I don't particularly foresee that ever happening. Once you have something (like sight or vision or mobility) and you're aware that there are others who don't have it, a natural reaction is to try and imagine not having it. However, since almost every hearing person has had their hearing their entire lives, we're honestly not good at imagining what it could possibly be like to not have it, and the prevalent culture is one where "having" is almost always considered better than "not having" (regardless of what you're talking about, unless it's something like "cancer" or "herpes", lol), the cultural predisposition is inherently already biased towards "hearing".

A convincing way to bring up the subject (to me) is to present it in the light of something like science fiction, akin to the X-Men or something like that. Treat "hearing" as you'd treat "telepathy". Many people would still likely want that as an additional sense if it was possible to surgically add that. But many more people would view that as something annoying, especially if it wasn't possible to turn off (like it is with hearing).

The issue most hearing people would have with interchanging "deaf" with "black" is that they view is as descriptive of capabilities (ie do you possess the capability to process auditory input) rather than descriptive of appearance (ie his skin is of a darker pigment).
 
Opinions vary. We all got them. I like reading all sides of a debate, even if it makes me shake my head.
 
Yeah. Anyone seen the videos from the Deaf Nation site, of Josh's travels to SE Asia? I was really impressed with how self-accepting and self-reliant the deaf communities were in Thailand and Cambodia. They were so matter of fact about being deaf and accepting it for what it is that the hearing around them responded accordingly.
 
DeafCaroline said:
Yeah. Anyone seen the videos from the Deaf Nation site, of Josh's travels to SE Asia? I was really impressed with how self-accepting and self-reliant the deaf communities were in Thailand and Cambodia. They were so matter of fact about being deaf and accepting it for what it is that the hearing around them responded accordingly.
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I notice that as well. They are kind of similar to deaf old ladies who wear too much makeup. I love those old ladies because of that! They are equally matter-of-fact about themselves and the world around them has no choice but to let them be. :lol:
 
Beowulf said:
I notice that as well. They are kind of similar to deaf old ladies who wear too much makeup. I love those old ladies because of that! They are equally matter-of-fact about themselves and the world around them has no choice but to let them be. :lol:
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I'm from the good ol' USA...and yeah, what you "might" call an ol' lady....but I do not wear make-up, none at all. I'm a matter-of-fact person also, and have let all the shyt just roll off of me, not like some other people who get all "upset"...Having a sense of humor is imperative these days, along with a good attitude. I've put a lot of people "in their place" in my lifetime, but still remember it's ignorance on their part.
 
rockin'robin said:
I'm from the good ol' USA...and yeah, what you "might" call an ol' lady....but I do not wear make-up, none at all. I'm a matter-of-fact person also, and have let all the shyt just roll off of me, not like some other people who get all "upset"...Having a sense of humor is imperative these days, along with a good attitude. I've put a lot of people "in their place" in my lifetime, but still remember it's ignorance on their part.
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I can see where your purse can be a deadly weapon, particularly if it contains a ten-pound jar of face cream. :lol:
 
kokonut said:
Be careful how you frame that considering the fact you have 34,000+ posts vs my 11,000+ posts and we both joined almost at the same time in 2006. Yet, you posted 3 times as much?

Granted, I have opinions. So do you. *shrug*
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tsk... what a sad fight you put up...

shel = 34,000+ posts... majority of her posts is about everything.. a healthy mix...
kokonut = 11,000 posts... majority of your posts is about 2 specific things - Republican Boner and your anti-deaf agenda... quite an obsession you have

and yes I know who Bob Weave is... I beat him twice and I threw only one punch :)
 
Jiro said:
tsk... what a sad fight you put up...

shel = 34,000+ posts... majority of her posts is about everything.. a healthy mix...
kokonut = 11,000 posts... majority of your posts is about 2 specific things - Republican Boner and your anti-deaf agenda... quite an obsession you have

and yes I know who Bob Weave is... I beat him twice and I threw only one punch :)
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Ouch, koko.
 
shel90 said:
Attention whore, that's why.
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Definition of Attention Whore -
A pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1.is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention
2.interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
3.displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
4.consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
5.has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
6.shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion
7.is suggestible, i.e., easily influenced by others or circumstances
8.considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are.
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An insecure person that is so emotionally unstable and needy, that they have to constantly be coddled and be the center of attention in any given situation. Or a person that is so insecure about their own intelligence and the above average intelligence of everyone in the room, that they constantly need to talk out of their ass about stupid random things that nobody cares about, constantly giving little factoids about the same subject(and the only one they know about) over and over and over and over again, as well as speaking in an overwhelmingly loud voice to overpower anyone else that cares to get a word in. All while being hilariously unaware that everyone in the room takes a deep sigh and rolls their eyes when this person starts to speak.
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yep it fits, shel...
 
:topic: We're definitely drifting from the thread here...

I think it's a real challenge for us as individuals not to conform to the majority culture (Hearing in this case). As social beings we need to belong and feel accepted by others. And it's painful when the majority don't accept us, or require conditions on their acceptance.

For me the key is finding just a few people who understand you and accept you for who you are. It has been so helpful for me personally reading people's stories here on AD and realizing I'm not alone.
 
AJWSmith said:
:topic: We're definitely drifting from the thread here...

I think it's a real challenge for us as individuals not to conform to the majority culture (Hearing in this case). As social beings we need to belong and feel accepted by others. And it's painful when the majority don't accept us, or require conditions on their acceptance.

For me the key is finding just a few people who understand you and accept you for who you are. It has been so helpful for me personally reading people's stories here on AD and realizing I'm not alone.
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You have an excellent point here. Personally, I don't think deaf can ever be fully assimilated despite all the current or even future devices that are supposed to help us hear. There will always be gaps in communication in the foreseeable future for for deaf and hearing so ASL or BSL or any other kind of sign system will not die out.
 
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