BUG: Deaf Identity and Internal Revolution

What Criteria for “Well-Meaning?”

90 C H R I S T O P H E R J O N H E U E R What Criteria for“Well-Meaning?” I’m sick of seeing this phrase in Deaf literature: “. . . wellmeaning hearing people.” Cochlear implants are advocated for by well-meaning but ignorant hearing audiologists. The actual surgery is done by well-meaning hearing surgeons. The children are then educated in oral schools by well-meaning but destructive hearing teachers , who, in turn, are backed up by well-meaning but whatever (pick an adjective) hearing speech therapists, psychologists, administrators , etc. Can I just ask somebody real quick—what’s your proof? That they’re well-meaning? It’s an important question, because quite a few Deaf people I know might stop sounding so “anti-hearing” if we could all (and by default, yet!) stop assigning hearing people the automatic status of sainthood. Because they’re not saints, at least as an overall group they’re not; and if you want my proof, let’s go to any prison. Give me a key, and I’ll lock you in for the night with one of those very hearing inmates you think are so well-meaning. Or (gasp!) are you trying to say that it isn’t a sense of hearing alone that makes a person well-meaning? Okay then, instead of making hearing the sole criteria for being well-meaning, let’s focus on the nouns. By your logic, if we scrap the adjective “hearing,” then all audiologists, surgeons, teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, and administrators are well-meaning B U G 91 solely by virtue of being audiologists, surgeons, teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, and administrators . . . right? No? Well, I’m glad you caught that one! Because in the very same prison I intended to lock you into tonight, I’m quite sure you would’ve found at least one surgeon who cut up a patient while loaded on morphine. Or maybe a teacher who molested a few students. In fact, you pick a job, white collar or blue, and I’ll show you a hearing person doing fifteen to twenty years. I don’t hate hearing people. Nor do I feel the need to label them “well-meaning,” as if doing so will somehow prove I don’t hate them. Maybe we could just go back to the tried-and-true method of judging people based on their actions rather than on the group they’re born into . . . or the profession they choose? Popping the Normal Pill You know you’re being judged. Corky squints his Syndrome eyes— it’s Big Brother of a Lesser God. One Sesame Street Linda after another frowns at your collection 92 C H R I S T O P H E R J O N H E U E R of Marlee Matlin fantasies. Are you using your hands appropriately? Cooperate. Insert yourself gracefully into those closer parking spaces. But the search for Braille smut is long and elusive. Can it be found in public libraries? What section? How does one phrase this discreetly to front-desk septuagenarians? Can you disguise yourself in disco medallions, big sunglasses, bright orange sweatbands, and still keep your job as a role model? Can you say, Sure, all deaf people dress this way! Or would that be bad? Oh, and the Normal Pill? You know the one. Take it, and you’re no longer blind, crippled, pockmarked with old zits. Can you just pop one and be done with it? Without turning traitor, or feeling sorry for yourself? Rebel in the other direction? ...