Deaf Culture Essay

The deaf subculture is one that is highly overlooked. Many people know there are deaf communities but that is where their knowledge of that subculture ends. Very few people know the depth and vibrancy of the Deaf subculture. There are Deaf theater companies, Deaf film festivals, and Deaf comedy shows. Deaf arts are distinct in a way most hearing people cannot appreciate.

The video, Deaf Ideology by Marika Kovacs-Houlihan, starts off by defining the term “Deaf”. Marika points out the term Deaf stimulates numerous questions in people’s minds such as “Can she hear?” or “Can she speak?”. These questions and thoughts lead to the topic of ideology. Ideology is a set of beliefs or ideas of a specific culture. Throughout the video, she explains that the ideologies some people have are limited.

In Deaf Literature, the camera was used to preserve ASL and achieve permanence. However, there were drawbacks. As hearing people become masters of ASL, they may take over jobs that were traditionally for the Deaf people, hence an increase in competition for employment. 4A: In learning about Deaf Culture, I have seen some norms that arise time and time again.

Across the world there are myriads of different cultures. The United States alone incorporates several different cultures, one of those being the American Deaf culture. Often the Deaf are not thought of as their own culture or community, but simply as a group of people who share a common trait. However, the Deaf community, typically made up of people who are hard of hearing or have total hearing loss, but also including friends and family who are hearing, have formed a culture through their shared language, experiences, and heritage. Members abide by cultural rules, and have their own ways of showing respect and disrespect, sometimes live within their own all-Deaf societies, and have their own social, athletic, and religious organizations.

Does the world around us force one to form opinions about others that may be unjust and harmful? The danger of stereotyping many times leads to individuals falling prey to believing that they may fit in a certain category or group thus forcing the individual to acclimate to negative stereotyping. “The stereotype hanging over the individual then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. He begins to see himself no longer as an individual and clings to the negative aspects of the group in which society has categorized him” (Duczeminski). By society not adapting to a disabled person and their exceptionality, it causes the disabled individual to succumb to said stereotypes.

In a hearing culture, a person undoubtedly thinks of the word literature as meaning a written form of storytelling. However, in Deaf culture the word “literature” may also refer to Deaf literature or ASL literature. Although both Deaf and ASL literature use similar structure they are different from one another. Deaf literature is written stories, poems or songs that include Deaf characters or Deaf experiences utilizing a Deaf perspective, ASL literature involves visual movement and just like when a person reads a book compared to seeing the movie it may be similar yet, it is different. Unlike just signing a word to convey its meaning, ASL literature becomes more akin to an actor performing in a play.

The public perception of the concept of deafness is often misunderstood, many deem it to be insignificant mainly because the struggle that these deaf people go through on a day to day basis seems invisible to the public eye. Hence, people might not be able to show as much empathy as they would to a person with say, an amputated leg. A common misconception would be how most people assume that when a person is deaf, they live in a world of silence. This is not always the case.

Introduction Let’s start with different perspectives we see on deaf people. In the daily society people see deafness as an injury on a human. It separates “impaired” people from the “normal” people. And we, the-hearing-people will kind of feel sorrow for them, or if they “succeed” in the hearing world, we would admire them for conquering this injury. We think that signing is a replacement for the “real” communication.

This is called “code-switching”. It is used either for expressing something that has not the same meaning as in your native language, for replacing a word or maybe just because we are very familiar with one language that we shift to by accident. Besides, “studies shows that bicultural bilinguals may exibit different verbal behaviors in their two languages and may be perceived differently by their interlocutors depending on the language they use in a particular cotext” . As the writer suggests, for these bilinguals “the two languages may be linked to different linguistic repertoires, cultural scripts, frames or expectation, autobiographic memories, and levels of proficiency and

Culture is typically defined as the manifestation of human qualities or traits that are embodied collectively by a particular group of people. A distinct culture can emerge within a group who suffer from physical limitations; making these individuals “outcasts.” The Deaf Culture is considered the world’s tightly knit group of people who experience the same “silent world,” while encompassing the same beliefs, behaviors, and values. Deaf People often try to portray positive attitudes while embodying their deafness as a lifelong condition. Deaf People rely heavily on the importance of safety and being aware of their surroundings; members of the Deaf Community depend on diverse forms of communications that keep them in contact with the rest

There are two different classes of name signs: arbitrary and descriptive. Arbitrary name signs are made up of common signs, typically made up using the first letter, for names that are used more widely within the Deaf community. Descriptive name signs can be more personalized to the individuals because the sign usually indicates some distinctive physical feature. 6. “Language has fundamentally three roles in bonding a group of speakers [users] to one another and to their culture.

Through Deaf Eyes depicts the history of American Sign Language, and the beginnings of deaf culture. It touches on stereotypes and whether or not they are true, mistreatment and the dangers of believing that people should be fixed, myths, and the negative and positive changes that have occurred throughout time in the Deaf community. It shows the perspective of the Deaf Community-or life through Deaf eyes. I learned a lot about history, art, and the roles they played in Deaf Culture. I have also now know a different side of certain people and places in history, for example, Alexander Graham Bell, and how the things he did for deaf people, and the things he did for hearing people were very different.

SL Deaf Event Quarter 1 For my first quarter Deaf Event, I read the book I'll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin. The book reflects on the highs and lows of Marlee's life from the time she was a young child, up until a few years before she joined Switched at Birth, one of her more famous roles among modern times. The cause of Marlee's deafness is still unknown. One theory that Marlee used to believe was that she became Deaf after contracting a viral infection as a baby, although she later learned that particular infection cannot cause deafness.

What is sign language?” written by Deborah Kent. Begins with the story of Beanca, a girl who was born deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate, and then goes on to explain the history of ASL. In this book, at first, the author clarifies that sign language is the fourth most widely used “language” in the United States. Whether a person is born deaf, becomes deaf, or lives in a deaf family or community, learning is language is different for those who cannot hear.