Challenging the Status Quo: Who Thinks About Deaf Women?

Challenging the Status Quo: Who Thinks About Disabled Women?

            In my quest for current articles that exemplified challenging the status quo I came across and article written by Francine Odette, M.S.W., for the DisAbled Women’s Network.* I had to wonder if most people knew that such an organization existed. I certainly did not. But there are virtually hundreds of organizations to support different causes for women.

There has been much exploration of the issues and concerns that face women who have negative self-body images from the viewpoints of those that are obese or have body image distortions even if thin. Little research, however, has been directed to understanding the social and emotional experiences of women who are disabled, including those who have hearing or visual impairments, speech dysfunctions, or mobility issues. Is this merely an innocent oversight of sociologists and psychologists? Do they lump these women’s concerns in with all the other body image psychosis? Or is it their supposition that the disabled are the responsibility of the medical world alone?

            Odette begins her article defining the Western culture’s image of a “normal” or socially desirable body. Oftentimes this equates with thinness which equates to health and success. Women whose bodies fall outside the “range of acceptance” are often isolated as in the case of the obese, minorities, those with non-heterosexual orientation, and the disabled. Likewise, the further they view themselves distanced from the standard of beauty, the greater their self-esteem and self-image suffers. Feminist theorists have spent  a great deal of time and energy exposing the truth that the dominant Western culture, defined by white, powerful, heterosexual males, has created the model of the perfect image of the female most desired by his gender ‘for the purpose of male pleasure and domination.’ This results in the need to alter “imperfect” bodies, sometimes by significantly altering eating patterns, over-exercising, or by cosmetic medical procedures. The reality for a woman with a disability is that the quest for that perfect body is not just difficult, it is impossible.

The culture of the disabled, often treated as though it didn’t exist, is primarily endorsed by notions of childlike dependency, overtures of bizarre anger episodes and dramatic displays of strength which are exemplified in the media. This serves to alienate women who have disabilities from others who don’t. Furthermore, these women often perceive family, friends, and societal expectations for themselves in the role of a woman as an intimate partner to be a losing effort because of their disabilities.

Odette brings up a very disturbing point, at least from a woman’s perspective, concerning the processes a women with disabilities endures in the name of medical knowledge. Girls and women are often paraded naked in front of panels of complete strangers, mostly male, and are required to bend and twist to determine their range of motion and flexibility. These actions are visually recorded and used for educational purposes with no consideration of what implications it might have on the girls and women who have been filmed. As these females have little control over what happens to their bodies medically, they turn to other control attempts such as bingeing, cutting, or other forms of self-mutilation.

The author concludes her article with suggestions that emphasize the need for women with disabilities to accept how they feel about themselves and to turn to others that can validate the abilities they do possess to affirm self –worth. She urges disabled women to show solidarity and awareness of the needs of all people by making links with others that can contribute to the well-being of all people, to challenge stereotypes and prejudices, to stop discrimination.  We hear this same call to action in the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. as he addresses the social injustices towards the black community, in Sojourner Truth’s arguments for women’s rights, and in Eleanor Roosevelt’s discourse in front of the United Nation that demands a worldwide consensus and declaration of a common set of human rights that will serve to protect the ‘dignity of the human personality.’ The abandonment of the notions that those with disabilities are any less human, compassionate, intimate, and/or incapable of greatness is long overdue.

* Just for the record, I did not spell the network’s name incorrectly; the network designates the capital ‘A’ on purpose. 

www.wifacets.org/yitrc/media/Bodybeautifulbodyperfect.pdf

The Deaf: A Culture That Should Be Heard

It would be safe to say that as long as man has been able to procreate, the possibility to birth children who are deaf has been more than probable. Although there is no way to access the number of individuals in the past that have been dealt the hand of deafness, it is known that these people were oppressed and denied basic rights such as the right to own property or to marry. It wasn’t until the Renaissance in Europe that these laws were challenged.

            Italy and Spain seemed to have led the way in the education of the deaf, including creation of the first known alphabet of hand shapes that represented different speech sounds. However, it was a French abbot, Charles Michel de L’Epee, who took the reins and organized the first association for the education for the deaf in 1750. Children flocked to his school from all corners of the country, bringing with them their various methods of communication, all involving signing. L’Epee compiled these signings, made them the standard form of deaf communication, and soon all of France and eventually Europe were using a common form of sign language known as the French Sign Language (FSL). Soon afterwards these concepts were brought to America to serve its deaf population as well.

            There were staunch believers, such as Alexander Graham Bell, that sought to persuade Americans that oral language was still the superior form of communication. His opinion took flight and resulted in Congress passing a declaration forbidding the teaching of sign language. Oralism, or the education of the deaf promoting methods such as teaching speech, speech reading, and listening, was the tolerated pedagogy. The American Sign Language (ASL) movement was on the brink of death when in 1960 William Stokoe testified before Congress proving that ASL was a language of its own, complete with its own set of rules for grammar and syntax, thus making is distinct from the English language.

            Just as geographical and cultural constraints eventually lead to distinctions in the spoken word, ASL has evolved in the same way. Each region in the United States has its own twist on how it is expressed. The audible word is often accompanied by intonations to punctuate its meaning. Users of ASL employ a similar but distinct manner of communication by raising their eyebrows, leaning forward or backwards, and widening their eyes. In fact, it can be said that ASL users use their entire body for communication purposes, from hand and body movements to facial gestures, producing many phonemes at the same time. It is this reason that sign language is not usually written.

In the United States alone, and this figure is based on deaf individuals who self-report, as many as 38% of our residents over the age of 5 are functionally deaf; one half of that number being adults over 65 years of age. It is no wonder that a whole new culture has developed that has its own language. Unfortunately, many members of this community feel discriminated against in society and feel the non-deaf look upon their lives as a form of ‘audism’ resulting from birth defects or accident or illness. The effects of this discrimination can be acutely observed in educational settings where deafness is listed on IEPs as a disability, or in taking tests where wording is biased towards the hearing population. All in all this community is overlooked during policy-making and would appeal to our government to consult with them instead of relying on the suggestions of individuals who have no concept of their culture.

As our nation is becoming more and more diverse it seems evident that the community of deaf individuals and their language, ASL, should be included in discussions of equal rights just like all the other minority populations. It isn’t as if the deaf have not contributed their share to society. Listen to the music of Beethoven. Hear the eloquence in Helen Keller’s writings. Acknowledge the fact the William “Dummy” Hoy, the first deaf major league baseball player, hit the very first grand-slam and created the hand signals that are still used in the game today. And we once thought the deaf were just taking up space.

References

http://www.lifeprint.com/as1101/topics/audism2.htm

http://wwwnidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/asl.asp

http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/history-of-sign-language.html

Lisa's First Ever Blog

When I explore what critical thinking means to me I realize that I am very seldom a critical thinker.
One of the biggest reasons for this is that I am not a skeptic at heart. I live in a world of emotion that oftentimes dilutes my reasoning ability. That is why I am a student after a thirty-year break from school. I am getting better with age, however. Returning to college has helped me in that regard.

I know now that I need to rely on reason and require evidence more often than ever before. I always have been able to find the best explanation for the circumstances in my life, but often it stopped there. I will have to learn to dig a bit deeper and wider to find the truth. Up until very recently I functioned on a kind of knee-jerk basis, reacting to what was happening in my life at that very moment.

Perhaps one of the biggest revelations I have had about myself these past quarters in school is my need to recognize my own presumptions, prejudices, and biases towards the issues that surround my life. I have always thought of myself as a pretty open-minded individual, but in truth I am very stubborn. I am definitely a product of my past, complete with opinions about what is good and evil, wrong and right. I still think, and always will, that life comes down to the choices we make. Because others make their own choices that eventually effect us, we then continue to make new choices in our own best interests.

Speaking of best interests. I feel the discussion of politics to be a no-win utilization of time. I seldom engage, namely because there is no form government that exists on the face of this earth that is genuinely concerned for the welfare of the majority of their people. Every government is corrupt, and the fallout creates the chaos we witness today. There is no utopia. There never will be.

The media is poison, especially to the old and very young. I rarely watch TV because it is so biased. The newspaper is bought out by special interest groups, rallying to the call of freedom of speech.

My academic endeavors are necessary for my professional goal of teaching. I read a whole lot of journals  on educational policies and practices. I hope to benefit from the empirical research that I digest and regurgitate in my papers. It is my hope that the analytical and critical thinking skills I learn in this class will assist me in my future endeavors towards the evalution of the education policies that are present and those that are proposed. I used to think education had nothing to do with politics. Boy, was I wrong.