neecy
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I read this on another forum - I'm not sure who wrote it, but it really hits the nail on the head!!
The Whiners Are Killing Us!
We live in a marvelous age, truly! In the last century deaf people had only been represented by the many incarnations of Helen Keller in made-for TV movies and deaf kids who would appear on sitcoms, teach all of the kids ASL overnight, then disappear. These days we have deaf FBI agents (Sue Thomas), deaf bad guys (John Doe), and deaf characters gratuitously placed on hit shows like “Jericho”.
We have captioned TV, DVD’s, and even Movie Theaters. But now, all of these things are under attack – not from evil Hearies, but from idiot deafies who are not willing to let fair be fair enough.
First, they gripe that there are no deafies on TV. Then they gripe because the deafies on TV don’t sign enough. THEN they gripe about the quality of the signs, that the actors are actually Hearies, or just aren’t “deaf enough”. I got news for y’all – this doesn’t send the message that we won’t settle for sub-standard – it sends the message we won’t settle for anything.
Here’s a case in point – ABC’s upcoming “Bionic Woman” series. The show was to feature a deaf character in a prominent role as Jaime Sommers’ deaf sister. Deafies went into a tizzy because the actress chosen to play her wasn’t deaf. Come on, folks, it’s called acting for a reason! In Hollywood Hispanics play Israelis, straight people play gay people, gay people play straight people, Buddhists play Methodists, and men even play women!
Instead of being happy that deafies are being portrayed as just normal folks who occupy virtually every strata of society, the Whiners are doing their dead-level best to prove that deafies are bitter, uneducated people who can’t possibly be pleased. They’ve told Hollywood that if any and all deaf characters don’t meet up to the vocal minority’s view of “d-Deaf Culture” they will be overwhelmed with petitions, boycotts, and lawsuits.
This leaves the Hollywooders with only one simple choice: drop the deaf characters. With no specific points of contention deafies can only gripe about one thing – the lack of deafies in TV and Movies. This is what happened with “Bionic Woman”. Jaime’s sister is no longer deaf – thanks go to whiney deaf bloggers everywhere.
A deaf blogger recently bragged about throwing a tantrum and essentially bringing everyone’s evening to a halt by blockading the theater entrance because of a technical problem that prevented him from seeing “Transformers” in Rear-Window Captioning. I can assure you theater managers everywhere will hear about this and decide they really don’t need our business that badly.
Deaf Whiner Activists have successfully gotten local religious and educational programming pulled from the air because the producers couldn’t afford captioning.
A couple of years ago I went to a hospital for a kidney stone, and found out that I had waited for an hour for treatment while an ASL interpreter was procured. At the time I didn’t know ASL. They were aware of this – but a local ordinance required an ASL interpreter for all deaf patients. I had the term “deaf” removed from my information. So, thanks to Deaf Whiner Activists, I’m at risk of having problems at the hospital because I don’t sign. Thanks for nothing, ya nimrods!
I’m all for equal access for deafies. I’ve even campaigned for my share of these rights. It’s because off me that the cops in my area all carry 4”X5” notepads and pencils in their cars to ease communication during traffic stops.
I don’t, however, think that our being deaf entitles us to special privileges. We should be treated with the respect we deserve by police officers, for example – but the entire justice system doesn’t need to come to a screeching halt because we get pulled over for speeding. We should have access to captions. We shouldn’t expect theaters to close down because they can’t have them on every single movie – and it’s not fair to expect Hearies to put up with captions on every movie, whether or not a deafie is in the audience. I used to be a hearie, and I can promise you captions are annoying if you don’t need them.
So – don’t settle for sub-standard, but be happy for concessions when we get them. In other words, a puppy won’t learn tricks if you whack him on the nose – even when he gets it right. True change doesn’t happen overnight – and it’ll never come at all if the folks who can make the changes don’t think we’ll be happy anyway.