Marlee Matlin

jillio said:
She is in the public eye, and quite often she is the only deaf person many hearies have ever seen, even from a distance. Hearies need a readily accessable model of a successful deaf person to open their minds to learning about other important individuals.
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Then what is needed are several more Matlins out there because the heraing world is clueless when it comes to Deaf culture.
 
Personally growing up Marlee Matlin, and Linda Bove were the only Deaf people I saw on tv ... as a hoh/deaf kid growing up that was a HUGE thing!

It wasn't about them being famous as much as it was about them being respected - on screen and off screen. I'm trying to think of a way to explain this in English... ummm .... while the hearing world was making me feel rather small -they ( Marlee and Linda etc) were (and are) this reminder that not everyone thinks deaf are dumb.

Of course there's more than just Marlee Matlin, Linda Bove etc out there ... Phyllis Frelich, Bernard Bragg, Groups like Deaf West,NTD& CTD are all HUGE.

They're Role models - currently one of my strongest role models is Deanne Bray(Kotsur) and it's not just because of Sue Thomas FB Eye.

The hearing world is infused with positive role models that kids and adults alike can look to... for hh/d who don't have a "community" it's more important than many people realise to be able to turn on the tv, and see people that the world sees as "successful" who just so happen to understand the same struggles, challenges, hopes, joys, and "life" that I do ...

JMHO
 
GarnetTigerMom said:
Marlee just a well known deaf actress, But she does do good on her words that she helps other deaf communities. She was also pretty cool gal before she got famous. Some of my classmats did act in the movie with her in the "Children of the Lesser GOD", I would say she have faced many many challenges in her life. Now she facing "dancing with the stars" is good challenges to prove that deaf people can do it. I think she tying to help hearing people understand deaf people more in a different view. We all know that there's a movie coming out called " Sweet nothng in my ears" seems like good educations for hearing people to understand deaf situations faces with hearing parents. But I can say she a good actress and that good enough for me.
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Agreed. I also would like to add this on my part - Marlee is the first deaf actress to win an academy award. That alone carried a lot of weight and it did indeed broke a lot of barriers. It gave a glimpse of how deaf people were able to incline their selves into the hearing world. She was also a "pioneer" to represent the deaf community in the films on a major level, especially when it comes to be able to bridge the gaps between both worlds.
 
Jolie_77 said:
Agreed. I also would like to add this on my part - Marlee is the first deaf actress to win an academy award. That alone carried a lot of weight and it did indeed broke a lot of barriers. It gave a glimpse of how deaf people were able to incline their selves into the hearing world. She was also a "pioneer" to represent the deaf community in the films on a major level, especially when it comes to be able to bridge the gaps between both worlds.
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:thumb:
 
Cheri said:
I don't praise Marlee Martin, but I can't speak for others.

As you know the public schools do not educated us about the Deaf Culture, so there's a lot that we did not know back then. Helen Keller was the most popular in our history, because we were taught about Helen Keller's life biography in school.
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Same here..I wasnt educated about any Deaf individuals. I just happened to watch a movie about Helen Keller which was how I learned about her.

Why is Matlin well-known..maybe cuz she won an Oscar?
 
Marlee Matlin is really the first deaf actress to come into the movie "Children of a lesser God" along with the whole cast of deaf people involve in the Deaf school. She is next to Helen Keller. Then there is more Deaf actresses and Deaf actors making in movies and special guests in the T.V. series after her. It is important that she had and still broke barriers to get to make hearing peoplle understand Deaf views and our Deaf Culture. Like why we need the ASL more important than oral. I know that Deanne Bray had a lot of training to speak for the T.V. series "Sue Thomas, FB Eye". It has not been easy for her but she got the job in playing the real Sue Thomas. We will have more new Deaf people to become actors for all the important roles to let the hearing people understand what is going on with us, Deafies. :cool2:
 
im surprised there has been such positive responses about her here...perhaps in a generational thing.


ive heard from countless individuals how they dont like her, how she isn't Deaf enough, because during her award speech, she used her voice instead of signing, furthering the negative stigma.
 
Anij said:
Personally growing up Marlee Matlin, and Linda Bove were the only Deaf people I saw on tv ... as a hoh/deaf kid growing up that was a HUGE thing!

It wasn't about them being famous as much as it was about them being respected - on screen and off screen. I'm trying to think of a way to explain this in English... ummm .... while the hearing world was making me feel rather small -they ( Marlee and Linda etc) were (and are) this reminder that not everyone thinks deaf are dumb.

Of course there's more than just Marlee Matlin, Linda Bove etc out there ... Phyllis Frelich, Bernard Bragg, Groups like Deaf West,NTD& CTD are all HUGE.

They're Role models - currently one of my strongest role models is Deanne Bray(Kotsur) and it's not just because of Sue Thomas FB Eye.

The hearing world is infused with positive role models that kids and adults alike can look to... for hh/d who don't have a "community" it's more important than many people realise to be able to turn on the tv, and see people that the world sees as "successful" who just so happen to understand the same struggles, challenges, hopes, joys, and "life" that I do ...

JMHO
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Oh, you reminded me of how excited my son was the first time he saw Linda Bove on Sesame Street. He was jumping up and down signing, "Lady deaf, lady deaf! Same me!"
 
Ariakkas said:
im surprised there has been such positive responses about her here...perhaps in a generational thing.


ive heard from countless individuals how they dont like her, how she isn't Deaf enough, because during her award speech, she used her voice instead of signing, furthering the negative stigma.
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Yeah, same here but for what it's worth, Marlee was recently asked by Gallaudet to be on their Board of Trustees. I think Marlee's mellowed....
 
Not deaf enough???

What does that mean? A deaf person has to have a certain level of deafness to be respected in the Deaf world?

Now I likely am totally off the target (as normal) by my statement, but is that what you mean? Please say it isn't so, please.
 
Ariakkas said:
im surprised there has been such positive responses about her here...perhaps in a generational thing.


ive heard from countless individuals how they dont like her, how she isn't Deaf enough, because during her award speech, she used her voice instead of signing, furthering the negative stigma.
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I don't see how that's a -bad- thing. She can talk, why is it 'unacceptable' for her to talk?
 
Because, at the time, it was an internal, cultural thing which I think is on the wane now, given the diversity of deaf folks. That's it in a nutshell; I'm tired. And I mean as in sleepy.
 
I will veer just slightly off topic if you all don't mind.

How important was Children of a Lesser God to the Deaf community? Was that flick the single most effective tool for the hearing majority in regards to Deaf culture?

Now back to our regular scheduled topic: Marlee Matlin.
 
AquaBlue said:
I will veer just slightly off topic if you all don't mind.

How important was Children of a Lesser God to the Deaf community? Was that flick the single most effective tool for the hearing majority in regards to Deaf culture?

Now back to our regular scheduled topic: Marlee Matlin.
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The original stage production was much more powerful in communicating the true message intended.
 
AquaBlue said:
Even if the movie has a broader audience?
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The movie had a broader audience, but it was not completely true to the original script. The origninal script was written for the stage, and the focus was on the negative effects of oralism, and the deaf perspective toward oralism moreso than on the romantic relationship between James and Sara. So the message was a bit distorted for the broader audience.
 
jillio said:
Oh, you reminded me of how excited my son was the first time he saw Linda Bove on Sesame Street. He was jumping up and down signing, "Lady deaf, lady deaf! Same me!"
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ME too!! I'm 30 now ... so she was there when I was little

Of course... I had to keep it "hidden" from everyone that it meant the WHOLE WORLD to me that there was someone even a little like me on tv ! ... it still does actually - seeing Linda Bove on Sesame Street showed me that I didn't have to be embarrassed ... and THAT ... that changed my whole world.
 
Anij said:
ME too!! I'm 30 now ... so she was there when I was little

Of course... I had to keep it "hidden" from everyone that it meant the WHOLE WORLD to me that there was someone even a little like me on tv ! ... it still does actually - seeing Linda Bove on Sesame Street showed me that I didn't have to be embarrassed ... and THAT ... that changed my whole world.
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Oh, I agree. It was so wonderful for deaf children to have that experience. It brought tears to my eyes to see my son so excited, and I know that it meant as much to other deaf kids as it did him. To think that the majority of a deaf kid's experience is spent watching hearing people, and thinking that they must try to emulate them, and then to have that one bright spot that gives the message..."Hey, its okay to be deaf!" No matter how many times I told my son the same thing, the message he got that morning seeing Linda Bove was more powerful than any of my words because it came from someone, like he said "Same me!"
 
Ariakkas said:
im surprised there has been such positive responses about her here...perhaps in a generational thing.


ive heard from countless individuals how they dont like her, how she isn't Deaf enough, because during her award speech, she used her voice instead of signing, furthering the negative stigma.
Click to expand...


I remember being upset at the time a bit - but honestly speaking or not is her choice... I see it differently now. I also "get" first hand the "not Deaf enough" thing - I speak, speechread and sign, I walk the proverbial tightrope between cultures ... and "not Deaf enough" it's just hurtful and hateful - we should be bound together by our culture and language, not drawn apart by our speech and audiograms.
 
AquaBlue said:
Not deaf enough???

What does that mean? A deaf person has to have a certain level of deafness to be respected in the Deaf world?

Now I likely am totally off the target (as normal) by my statement, but is that what you mean? Please say it isn't so, please.
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Not culturally Deaf enough. It means a deaf person who has adopted to hearing culture behavior instead of Deaf culture behavior. I was accused of not being Deaf enough numerous times due to my oral-only upbringing despite having a severe to profound hearing loss in both ears since birth.
 
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