victoria

satiricallykeenhint:

The child, Anthony Smith, was born deaf in his right ear and had limited hearing in his left ear. At age four, he was outfitted with a hearing device and began to learn and interact more with his environment, yet when he saw that “superheroes don’t have hearing aids”, he became self-conscious and stopped wearing the device.

His mother was desperate to continue interaction with her son who had just begun to communicate, so she wrote to Marvel, explaining the story without any idea of who would get the letter, if anyone would get it at all.

They did. And they sent Anthony art and comics featuring Hawkeye- who in the 80’s needed a hearing device- and THEN they created Blue Ear, the superhero who used his hearing device to hear super well.

as if this little boy is only worth the hearing what hearing devices he wears!

yes, lets shame deaf and hard of hearing children in to not wanting to wear their hearing devices, all so that we hearing people are at ease so THEY can communicate with us, AND then when they are all sad and lonely we, the Hearing people can swoop in and save the day with a superhero with OH MY GOSH A HEARING AID! :O GASP!! LORD PRAISE THE HEARING PEOPLE WE ARE SO NICE TO THE DEAF PEOPLE..

why is the character is defined by his deafness?? Marvel could even spin it in a cool way like highlighting deaf super powers! but no, it reeks of hearing writers. 

and why is it they have to wait for a letter from a boys mother to make something? its a very sympathy driven move, and the deaf pity parties gross me out. 

instead Marvel could have been like, oh my bad, we realize we were mis/under representing deaf and HOH people lets get some deaf/HOH writers in here and make a badass superhero! and not target the aww poor boy who felt so isolated, yeah sure id be a lie for deaf/HOH people to say we have never felt isolated, OF COURSE we have, but to use that as a motivating factor for Hearing people to make a comic for us?? 

no.

look Hearing people. this is not some awesome and amazing production of awesomeness. its crappery made by hearing people, to make themselves feel better about lack of accurate representation of d/Deaf/hard of hearing people. 

morerobots:

thatdeafchick:

teaandtheatre:

thatdeafchick:

thelegalizeddeafies:

I feel like I have to post this since he’s my former roommate in all, but this is a very, very touching article.

is that sarcasm? i cant tell. cause i thought this article was disgusting.

How so?

im all for letting people have their opinions and talking about their experiences and what not, but that article is so filled with internalized audism. 

and why do articles about d/Deaf people always mention a silent world, i dont know about you but im pretty damn LOUD.

here are a few quotes:

“Being deaf especially sucks when it comes to love. You can’t ever love someone unless you’ve talked to them. So how do you communicate effectively? Everything I’ve ever thought of is awkward, because none of them are ever normal. Social norms are norms because they are what people expect.

I’ve talked to people “normally.” It’s hard, it’s error-prone, and we have to repeat a lot. That’s never a good recipe for love. It’s hard to have awesome conversations when you have to repeat every other thing you say and are never sure whether the other person understood.

I could try to find a deaf girl. However, I don’t want my kids to have an increased chance of deafness. Even if they come out hearing, we’d need to make sure they’re raised right - who will teach them how to talk? And I don’t identify with Deaf culture, which takes pride in being deaf. I accept that deafness is part of me, but it’s just there. Like the fact I have black hair.”

“I never considered myself part of Deaf culture. It arose because, I suspect, we were lonely. It’s the same for any minority. Except this time, Deaf culture came together because of a common language everyone could understand - American Sign Language. I’ve heard the stories. Deaf people entering college for the first time. Finding other deaf students. Suddenly, during their first sleepless night, they’re making up for all the conversations they had missed.

Some become angry at the hearing world. They went so long without feeling like they belonged. Without feeling loved.

Some don’t think deafness is a disability; it’s just a way of life. After all, we can do anything except hear. But I don’t want to be part of the Deaf world, which seems so cloistered sometimes. I want to be part of the larger world - and out here, not being able to hear is a pretty significant disadvantage.”

its so UGH. and now hearing people are reading this and thinking this is what all deaf/Deaf and HOH people feel. where is the balance? 

this is pretty much how I felt whilst reading this article.

Yes, I get frustrated and pissy a lot. Yes, I have a lot of self-loathing. I’m sure I post more rants about being deaf on here than positive things - but that doesn’t mean I hate being deaf.

It can be hard for sure, but I think I have a pretty fulfilling life (to a point. it is not fulfilling sitting around job hunting ok) - I do a lot of the same things hearing people do. One of the major things you’ve probably noticed by now, is going to concerts which I hope you have noticed and realized that clearly being deaf doesn’t affected my ability to listen to and enjoy music.

This article for me, while it ended on an okay note, was painful to read. It was so negative. That quote Elle pulled about love & relationships was horrible - anything romantic-ish (???? there has got to be a better word for it because it is NOT romance, far from it) that I’ve done has been with hearing guys. I communicate with hearing people, and for me it is so much more than just talking. I read body language, I read your signals. Maybe you can’t whisper sweet nothings in my ear, but that’s not really a big deal.

The fact that this guy says it is just a part of him, that’s just there, to me that shows how much he doesn’t realize it impacts his life. How much it can impact his life positively. You don’t have to be a part of Deaf culture to be okay with your deafness - I am not a part of it, for no specific reason, and I am okay with my deafness. And I don’t think it’s this cloistered world either, and you folks on tumblr have shown me that.

If I was a hearing person reading this, with no knowledge of deafness, I would think that this is the worst life ever. It isn’t inspirational. It isn’t educational. It is just about how much this guy sees his disability as an enemy.

^^^^

accurate post is accurate.