Quote from: Questioner Three on August 4, 2006
What’s your take on references to deafness in popular culture? (For instance, when Gil Grissom was going deaf on CSI.) Do you see it as being informative for the hearing public, or as pandering to the deaf community, or even exploitive? What would you say are the best and worst portrayals of deafness in pop culture?
Whoa, excellent question! First of all, let’s define “pandering” here. It basically means “to make happy”. I don’t see that happening. Secondly, are the “references” in media regarding deafness/hard of hearing accurate and thus informative? I have yet to see anything that was accurate or informative. So that’s another nay. Then thirdly, you ask about “exploitive”. That’s a mighty word to use. However, considering the popular culture is what currently shapes people’s perspective on many things, if not most things, I would say yes. Why yes? Well, look at how your perspective on lipreading was before reading this topic. Then think about where did you get that perspective from? Many people have thought that most (if not all) deaf people should be able to lipread them perfectly and easily. That they should be able to voice fairly clearly (as in being understandable). They’re shocked when this turns out to not be true. That perspective is usually pushed by the media. Cultural expectations and views of the deaf are very out of track of what they should be, thanks to many things, but I believe most thanks can be attributed to popular media.
So thus, there are no best or worst portrayals of the deaf. They all suck, period. One thing I want to stop in tracks here before anybody wants to think about it. A popular deaf actress, Marlee Matlin – what about her? This is a question that may be thought by people. Well, my response, along with my friend’s: She’s the representative of the deaf people, just like G.W.Bush is the representative (I really should say, embodiment, as he is the representative, heh) of the American people. Makes sense, eh?
Blessed Be!!
