I would like to comment before you begin Emily's blog posting.
I am enjoying reading your blogs very much. I have not heard of the Deaf Idol. Amazing! It was the first of its kind and it will now continue. I cannot wait to see what becomes of it!
This week we hear from Emily. Thanks Emily!
Glee Imagine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N67EBCHDYAU
Family Stone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsC2-cHkYCQ&feature=related
CSI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HvmRnVu1XE
Sweet Nothing in my Ear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycjbJmYLWFk
Jericho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTFLvuqA2xA&feature=related
Do you feel like TV shows/movies portray deaf culture in awkward ways? For example do they use ASL for showboating or do you think they use it to try and inform people about ASL/deaf culture? What are your opinions about the clips and what do you think? What was done well in these clips? What was not done very well? Do you notice any difference in signs? (Like do they use a different sign for something then what we are use to?) What else do you think? Do you know of any other examples?
Emily :)
Jared you are up next week!
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First I would like to say that I love this idea for a blog. It really makes me want to watch all of these shows and movies all the way through. Only bummer was that my Glee video would not play, it was a still picture.
ReplyDeleteFamily Stones: I think out of all the videos this one represented the Deaf culture the least. I noticed five signs that we sign differently: hope, gay (fs), special, and more. It makes me wonder how ASLish the "conversations" were supposed to be. I saw that there was only one deaf person at that table, and I'm thinking that maybe the family created their own version to communicate with that individual. They didn't use ASL the entire time, only bits and pieces of it. This is way I think it is not true ASL. I do think that this is a good example of how a hearing family can communicate with a deaf family member without having them have to lip read the entire time. O and one last thing, I think throwing the knife to get the deaf members attention was a little extreme.
CSI: I think I have seen this whole episode but for the life of me I can't remember what happens. I think for this one it is sad that no one informed Marlee Matlin of what was going on just because she was deaf. In that situation I feel you would at least write her a little something to let her know what was going on until they got an interpreter on scene.
Sweet Nothing: Again, I think this is a very real situation that occurs regularly in the world. Monica has shared the story of her daughter at the pool and all the other hearing kids running away from her just because she was different form them. This is a very similar case, but the difference was that the boy had someone his own age defending him.
Jericho: This one was hard to make out some of the signs since they started or ended out of frame. I believe this does a good job of showing a sort of compromise between the two languages. Both English and ASL are used and both understood each other the entire time.
Based on most of these clips and also others I've seen outside of this class, it usually appears to me that shows tend to use ASL in the following situations:
ReplyDelete1. ASL is used to show that all families have members who face different challenges (in this case, being dead). Sadly, these cases usually end show being used to either just show pity or that deaf people are less capable.
2. ASL is used as a tool for promotion. Sort of like "Next time, on (failing show's name), your favorite character encounters a deaf person! See how real they are!" Yuck.
Rarely does a show do a good show addressing deaf people. Amanda's comments were basically how I felt about the individual clips we had here.
If my mind, one of the few shows I've seen that has handled this correctly is Scrubs. There is an episode that involves the main character, J.D., going around the wishes of a Deaf father and his Deaf child and ordering cochlear implant surgery by getting the mother's consent (presumably hearing) for it, despite the father's wishes to not have the surgery done.
The episode allows J.D. to represent the uninformed public, and through knowledge and learning about why the father does not want his son to have the surgery, is able to understand that being deaf is not a disability.
The spisode is called "My Words of Wisdom", season 6, episode 16. I own the season so if at some point we wanted to watch it, I can bring it in. It's 22 minutes long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml7rFmobXxk
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVzZs324DbI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgk1CKPZIc8
If you watch those three links in order, it is the episode I was talking about. Broken into 7 minutes each.
For the Glee video, I don't really get it? the video didn't work and it was a guy singing so was the guy deaf and the other people hearing? Kind of rips on deaf people and that theyre not as capable as hearing people right?
ReplyDeleteFor the Family Stone one, yeahhh that was a bit sensitive. I hated this video. Like Amanda said, they only used bits and pieces of ASL and when people watch this show they will think of ASL as way different than it is. Also, puts down deaf people by saying the guy is not normal because he is gay and that wouldn't you just hope for a straight child because it would be easier for them? People will think the same about deaf people too because signing is included in this too. I feel like adding sign to this episode is wrong, people will perceive it way differently.
The CSI one was ehh alright. Only thing I didn't like is that they made it so that people will believe that all deaf people read lips. The guy determined she is deaf because she was trying to read lips. Then when they spoke to her, they didn't write anything down, simply just tried to tell her because they immeadiately thought she could understand by reading lips.
Sweet Nothing video I have seen before. Amanda is right about this video. I bet it happens all the time, kind of sad actually. PROPS TO THE LITTLE BOY HERO =)
Jerico video was kinda hard to see. But the sign for BEFORE was a little different i think but not quite sure. I guess I don't really understand why english and sign are included in this video. Is she deaf, anyone know?
I'd have to totally agree with what Jared had to say about why ASL is used and that people don't do very well addressing ASL in their shows.
I concurr, I want to see this episode Jared is talking about. Can we?
Today as I was watching TV I saw this commercial and thought I would share it will you all. This just shows how much people are not educated on ASL and the Deaf culture.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpawNS_vJM
I think Jared made some good points with what these clips are doing to the deaf community. The Glee one really struck me as strange because they have a group (of what I think) is an all deaf glee club. I have not seen the episode. But it is strange to me that they wouldn't just let them preform it and instead they start singing and join them in signing along. You can't just join in something like that and all of a sudden know that language. It would be like if it was a Spanish group singing and then the English people joined and started singing in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, i definitely don't think that TV uses sign language to inform about the deaf culture, I think that it is used for dramatics.
ReplyDeleteThe Jericho clip started with sign language and that was fine, but then he stopped signing like she could miraculously hear. What was that about? It seems like they thought that the things that he was saying sounded better as words that sign.
The CSI clip was ok. They made a point to put the audience in the Deaf persons body... There was no sound when the detectives were talking and I surely couldn't read their lips. But THe thing i didn't like was that they automatically assumed that she was/could read lips. She could have been acting that way because she was scared.
I have seen that glee episode before and I thought it was definitely degrading. Not just this clip in particular, but one of the other characters on the show has some lines that aren't appropriate. I think that they are suppose to be for comical reasons, because it fits her character, but the things she said shouldn't have been said. And I like the message that a Deaf glee club its sending (deaf people can do anything that hearing people can do), but I agree with emily in that I don't understand why they didn't just perform it.
I am watching a show on hulu right now that deals with deafness. One of the couples' children go deaf and they are conflicted as to whether or not to get a cochlear implant. Through out the show, I don't think that anyone informs the couple about the deaf culture at all. They are informed only that the cochlear implant would be best for their daughter and that they should do it. Watching this, I understand that they are missing some very important information, but the majority of the viewers who have watched this show probably haven't even thought about that because they are also in the dark about Deaf culture.
I like the new link for McDonalds that Emily posted. I agree that this does misrepresent ASL or any SL for that matter because it os not universal. I can't help but wonder though if they meant universal in a sense that every country says "I'm Lovin It". I'm not sure, other thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI found the actual clip for the glee video and it was very cool to watch since they are signing the song, and we all had to interpret and sign songs as well. I noticed that some of their signed sentences were very english, but some of them were great! When the song says "brotherhood of man" they all signed all people together. I also thought it was really cool that the song starts out with only Deaf people signing and then when the hearing people joined to sing, they also watched and tried to sign the song! It was very cool!
ReplyDeleteThe Family Stone conversation was very difficult for me to analyze from a Deaf Community perspective because there were a lot more heavy material involved. It was kind of interesting because there can be many similarities found between the Gay and Lesbian Community and the Deaf Community. I found it very interesting that they combined the two!
I definitely agree with Amanda about the McDonalds commercial. It was a little frustrating that they used sign to go along with "the universal language" idea. But i couldn't help but wonder if they were talking about the want for McDonalds being universal.
I think we can all agree on the Sweet Nothing In My Ear clip! it was AWESOME to see that little boy stick up for the Deaf boy. I loved it!
The CSI video was irritating because of the fact that he claimed to know she was Deaf just because he thought she was lipreading. And then when they got all up in her face and starting talking! ugh! But I appreciated the fact that they requested an interpreter right away.
The Jericho video was interesting because at first you see them signing.. and then throughout the conversation he quits signing for a bit when the conversation material was heavy, and I thought that was very odd.
Overall it was great to watch all these videos!