[ SECRET POST #1849 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1849 ⌋


Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________

02.


__________________________________________________

03.


__________________________________________________

04.


__________________________________________________

05.


__________________________________________________

06.


__________________________________________________

07.


__________________________________________________

08.


__________________________________________________

09.


__________________________________________________

10.


__________________________________________________

11.


__________________________________________________

12.


__________________________________________________

13.


__________________________________________________

14.


__________________________________________________

15.


__________________________________________________

16.


__________________________________________________

17.


__________________________________________________

18.


__________________________________________________

19.


__________________________________________________

20.




Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 43 secrets from Secret Submission Post #264.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[dethtoll.livejournal.com]

Born deaf, but I get by really well on a hearing aid.

Spent most of my pre-college education in a deaf school where I was treated horrendously by students and staff, partially because I didn't play sports, partially because I was poor, and partially because I wasn't completely deaf.

I've spent the last 20 years or so watching deaf culture crawl further and further into its own asshole. I really wish a lot of deaf people didn't think it was okay for a deaf woman to shove pencils into her hearing baby's ears, and I'm disgusted by the notion that that a deaf child should be forced to a lifetime of disability, isolation, and yes, prejudice, particularly when we have still made little progress in teaching deaf students language properly, giving them the ability to read and write well, because some people think cochlear implants, which are most effective when installed at birth, are a tool of hearing oppression.

And when they throw a fit because the president of Gallaudet University "isn't deaf enough" despite being deaf, having deaf parents, and working in deaf education, because she used her voice and didn't actually learn ASL -- not sign language in general, but ASL -- until she was 23, deaf culture's identity politics officially venture into the realm of unintentional self-parody.

[(Anonymous)]

I really wish a lot of deaf people didn't think it was okay for a deaf woman to shove pencils into her hearing baby's ears

I think I very vaguely remember you mentioning this a while ago on another post about deaf culture, but it still completely horrifies me and made me double take at the screen

[(Anonymous)]

Do some deaf mothers really shove pencils in their hearing baby's ears? That's horrifying.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm hoping it was an isolated incident...

[(Anonymous)]

Poster who asked you the question here--

Thank you for your reply. Please please please tell me that's just a hypothetical, and not an actual case because WTF?!?! Who would ever think it's okay to harm their baby because he or she has a faculty you don't? I get refusing to be defined by and reduced to one's impairment, and not living your life feeling like you are lacking, but that's just incredibly sick and selfish.

And I didn't realize there was so much prejudice against medically deaf (is that the proper term?) people who still have some hearing. And from what I understand about the cochlear implant, it's a very complicated issue (electronic "hearing," uncertain long-term effects, impossible to reverse, etc.), and I honestly don't know what I'd do if I ever had to make a decision for my child. If it really was straight-out, uncomplicated cure, there's no question I would get it, and from what I'm gathering a lot of deaf people would take offense at that?

[dethtoll.livejournal.com]

As far as I know it's an isolated incident -- but the fact remains that there are some in the deaf community who really do think that's okay.

The deaf community can get very insular, and it's really very abusive towards people who don't fit their definition of 'deaf.' I've spent my whole life between worlds -- a hearing world that largely ignores me and a deaf world that doesn't want me. Made growing up in a deaf school a nightmare, let me tell you.

As for the cochlear implant, it's a tough situation. The debate over the ethics of implanting versus not implanting centers primarily over the fact that for the implant to be most effective it should be placed at an early age, usually before the child is old enough to be aware of the implications and make his own choice. What it boils down to is that there are elements in the deaf community who feel that it should be left up to the child. Deaf people may swear up and down that they're "differently abled" and that anything that might help them assimilate into society at large rather than force them to stick to their little enclaves of deaf people is a tool of the "hearing world" to abuse them with, but the fact of the matter is, it's really ultimately up to the parent, isn't it? Granted, it has its complications, but you have to weigh the risk of that versus the known quantity of deaf education, which has honestly been historically lacking -- and if anything, it's only gotten worse along with education overall because like everything else, there's more politics than money or sense.

As far as I'm concerned, if I had a deaf child, I'm not going to put my kid through the kind of trouble I went through -- he's getting the implant. He can hate me later for it, but I'm pretty much saving him at least some misery.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm Deaf, I come from an all-Deaf family, and I graduated from an all-deaf school....and I couldn't agree more! The Deaf culture bugs the hell out of me - especially with how they whine about being discriminated but then they don't hesitate in discriminating people based on their hearing levels. Gahhhh. But hmm - even though I have never ever heard of the pencil incident....I still find it really hard to believe that Deaf people would be okay with the idea of stuffing pencils in ears. I'm sure it's just an isolated incident and I don't think we can speak for the entire culture - although I won't be surprised if it happened more than once....

[(Anonymous)]

You don't know shit about the Fernandes protest. I used to think the same thing as you, but it has actually changed Gallaudet for better. If the students didn't speak up about Fernandes being the wrong choice. "Not deaf enough" is the media's take. The protesters focused on her terrible track record but that wasn't enough for the media to run with so they angled on one of their complaints about her (and there were many).

I'm sorry you had a horrible experience with your deafness. It is not the same for everybody. I hated being deaf at first too but now I'm learning to love it and it has been wonderful.

[(Anonymous)]

Not dethtoll, but anyway I don't think the media would have reacted this way if the whole DPN thing never happened in the late 1980s. And tbh, I was a senior in high school (a deaf school) when the Fernandes thing happened and every single teacher made fun of Fernandes' ability to sign. It DID matter that she wasn't deaf enough.