Sometimes you have to laugh .....
In this case as much as you want to, because its a story from within the deaf community which grabbed my attention.
Who would have thought that 'promoting a hearing activity' aka 'promoting oralism', is considered such a NO NO with certain deaf disability activists, that anyone practising such a heinous crime, and who happens to be deaf, can be sent death threats?
Certainly not me .... after all, I assumed that all the PC disability rights warriors, were surely signed up to the other 'tolerance for all' requirements of PC politics and activism. But apparently I was wrong in that assumption ... or is that described as 'assumptionally challenged'?
There is it seems a deaf (or is that audio logically challenged?), singer named Mandy Harvey, who for reasons that possibly have something to do with talent, or probably all to do with TV's version of political correctness, has been promoted straight in to the finals of Americas Got Talent (an oxymoron title if ever there was one). Her other gimmick, apart from being deaf - which only became legally recognisd when she was aged 19 and had already started a music course - is that she is barefooted when she sings (don't ask me why). I think Sandy Shaw used to do the same thing .... And no, I don't know why she did it either.
Anway's, bare feet aside, this singing malarkey apparently so upset some other deaf people, that when she first started on her road to stardom she got "got a lot of backlash from certain people in that [deaf] community" in the form of "pretty strongly-worded letters and death threats".
Oralism by the way, is maybe not what the more smutty minded of you (and me) thought of when you saw the term. It is in fact the name given to the practise of educating deaf people to use speech and lip-reading, rather than sign language. The shortened term, 'oral', is sometimes used to disparagingly refer to deaf people who are thought to favour the hearing world.
According to some deaf people, all deaf people are supposed to be encouraging American Sign Language or other such hand languages only, so when one doesn't, its like they are 'not one of us'. Mind you its hard to sing in sign, and even harder to sell it on the radio .... just saying.
Strangely it's been reported that the editor of The Gay Times has been suspended this week because of a series of anti-Semitic texts and tweets posted between 2010 and 2015. He attributes these to a "Deep self loathing", which apparently he doesn't feel anymore. So that's OK then .....
Ah, how these sort of stories dirties the halo that some of these pressure groups so like to wave in our faces.
In this case as much as you want to, because its a story from within the deaf community which grabbed my attention.
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| Deaf Activists Are Quite .... Well Active. |
Who would have thought that 'promoting a hearing activity' aka 'promoting oralism', is considered such a NO NO with certain deaf disability activists, that anyone practising such a heinous crime, and who happens to be deaf, can be sent death threats?
Certainly not me .... after all, I assumed that all the PC disability rights warriors, were surely signed up to the other 'tolerance for all' requirements of PC politics and activism. But apparently I was wrong in that assumption ... or is that described as 'assumptionally challenged'?
There is it seems a deaf (or is that audio logically challenged?), singer named Mandy Harvey, who for reasons that possibly have something to do with talent, or probably all to do with TV's version of political correctness, has been promoted straight in to the finals of Americas Got Talent (an oxymoron title if ever there was one). Her other gimmick, apart from being deaf - which only became legally recognisd when she was aged 19 and had already started a music course - is that she is barefooted when she sings (don't ask me why). I think Sandy Shaw used to do the same thing .... And no, I don't know why she did it either.
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| Barefooted Singers Are Not New |
Anway's, bare feet aside, this singing malarkey apparently so upset some other deaf people, that when she first started on her road to stardom she got "got a lot of backlash from certain people in that [deaf] community" in the form of "pretty strongly-worded letters and death threats".
Oralism by the way, is maybe not what the more smutty minded of you (and me) thought of when you saw the term. It is in fact the name given to the practise of educating deaf people to use speech and lip-reading, rather than sign language. The shortened term, 'oral', is sometimes used to disparagingly refer to deaf people who are thought to favour the hearing world.
According to some deaf people, all deaf people are supposed to be encouraging American Sign Language or other such hand languages only, so when one doesn't, its like they are 'not one of us'. Mind you its hard to sing in sign, and even harder to sell it on the radio .... just saying.
Strangely it's been reported that the editor of The Gay Times has been suspended this week because of a series of anti-Semitic texts and tweets posted between 2010 and 2015. He attributes these to a "Deep self loathing", which apparently he doesn't feel anymore. So that's OK then .....
Ah, how these sort of stories dirties the halo that some of these pressure groups so like to wave in our faces.
She also bears a fleeting ressemblance to Sandy Shaw - I suspect she's a fan.
ReplyDeleteThis "one way to do something" pops up in most areas where some become passionate about it ; there's a correct way to eat a pizza, appreciate wine, hold a pencil, speak a language - you name it, if there's a fan they'll invent procedures to further specialise their passion to show their devotion and tighten bonds with the like minded.
Jazz fans will shun melody to a point where even they don't like the sound in the same way that the Religious will shun logic and reason to show how strong their faith is. People are weird.
Like all interest groups they are selfish. They all break out with fanatics who can't tolerate anyone breaking ranks. The communists quickly did the same after Lenin died.
ReplyDeleteSadly that always seems to be the way it works. Thanks for the comment.
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