Chapter 56

"Should a hearing person write about Deaf Culture?"

       When reading this question, I personally thought that a hearing person should have the ability to learn and write about Deaf Culture, because if Deaf Culture was only written by Deaf people, there would not always be clear facts based on the fact that they are viewing the culture from the inside.  While reading this chapter, I was glad to learn that the authors of HPO had the same opinion.  "If only insiders wrote about their own culture, the fields of sociology, anthropology, ethnology, and linguistics wouldn't exist...we want to balance the outsiders' view with what the insiders have to say" (pg 333).  I think that this belief goes for any other culture.  

       It seems that overtime, the publishing on Deaf culture has evolved, beginning with a very negative view and has moved presently to a more open and positive view of the culture.  In the past, there were many misconceptions made by hearing people of Deaf culture, mainly due to the negative opinions of oralists.  The oralist view made sign language seem wrong and abnormal, therefore making deaf people seem like they were outliers in society.  It is horrible to think that these hearing scholars had the ability to make ASL seem like such a negative thing.  After learning about Myklebust's "Your Deaf Child: A Guide for Parents", I realized how anti-ASL these oralist/scholars were.  In this book, there was absolutely NO mention about sign language.  The prejudice against Deaf people, and the lack of acceptance by hearing scholars during this time is extremely sad, and it helps me understand why some Deaf people are still skeptical of hearing people observation and writing about their culture.  

       However, present hearing scholars have had a more beneficial influence on the Deaf community as they have "gained international respect for ASL and its culture" (pg 334).  I love that attitudes of scholars studying Deaf culture have become so accepting and respectful.  Currently, scholars pay more attention to the importance of sign language in the Deaf community and it is said that "those who don't know ASL do field work with an interpreter" (pg 334).  Not only have the views/attitudes towards Deaf culture changed, but so have the scholars.  "The field of Deaf Studies is no longer the exclusive preserve of hearing scholars.  More and more Deaf people have been entering this field" (pg 334).  I think this will be very helpful in further understanding Deaf culture, because the study is now open and people can look at both inside and outside observations, to see a better picture of how this culture works.  Deaf scholars "have enhanced our understanding of how deaf people lived and communicated in earlier times and other cultures, and how people use and process language" (pg 335).