WLC 275x
Week #1
Re-Defining D-E-A-F
5/24/13
Re-Defining D-E-A-F Being honest, from the very beginning of the movie my notions were challenged when I noticed that this video was going to be silent. It only happened to me for a couple seconds and then it became obvious to me that there was no other way to make a video about this matter than soundless. The video itself tries to make a statement to all the viewers so we can reflect on the previous perceptions and preconceptions that we have about the meaning of the word “deaf”. Moreover, it successfully proves that sing languages such as ASL are as valuable and eloquent as any other spoken or written language. In that nature, the video also intends that the movie becomes the grand opening of a series of other artistic production where sign language can be deeply explore and fully understand.
Ryan Commerson, producer and host of the movie “Media, Power & Ideology: Re-Presenting D-E-A-D”, states that all the preconceptions societies have about people being born deaf is because of “ideology”. He uses Valentin Voloshinov’s definition of the word to later explore its significance in more depth. Ideology: “The dimension of social experience in which meanings and values are produced”. Furthermore, he continues exploring the first persons that tried to describe deaf people back in the 18th century. He explains that at first these persons, like author John Conrad Amman, one of the first ones to write about speech and how deaf people could learn how to communicate, had many misinterpretations of how deaf people really is and what are they capable to. Commeron continues saying that even thou they used very degrading terms to describe deaf people they were judging them wrongly since most of deaf people grew up without any education. The fact that all these people wrote about them, Cammeron says, it brings this false ideology to our present.
Nonetheless, people like William C. Stokoe Jr.
Citations: Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post, Sep 17, 2012. Online Article. Jamie Berke, About.com, December 07, 2008. Online Article. Author Unlisted, Cultural Pressures and the Suppression of Language and Identity, Online Article. Author Unlisted, Lifeprint.com, Deaf: A Brief Description, Online Article. Ryan Commerson, Media, Power & Ideology: Re-Presenting D-E-A-D, July 08, 2011, Movie.