Lianne Herbert: The word ‘inspiring’ is so cringeworthy

Posted on January 15, 2018 by



I visited London for the Magma 69 – ‘The Deaf Issue’ launch at the London Review Bookshop.

I was very impressed as it showcased the diversity of deafness and unique experiences that each individual can face. It also highlighted that ‘one size does NOT fit all’ which Magma editors Lisa Kelly and Raymond Antrobus demonstrated by having the issue printed in two colours.

Over the weekend, I met a few of my favourite D/deaf friends whilst I was there in London. On one occasion a friend and I went into a fast food restaurant and had the cheapest order known to man. Two drinks to nurse before I went on a train for 4 hours back to Leeds.

We mainly used SSE, Sign Supported English, which follows the order of spoken English and not BSL, British Sign Language.

BSL has it’s own grammatical structure and some ‘multi channel signs’ like ‘long time no see’ which is just one movement that can translate as a whole sentence in written/spoken English.

My friend and I kept drawing attention from the miserable Londoners around us but carried on regardless. There were several times young children were staring and gawking at us. Let’s hope that’s one day they become BSL interpreters…

Moving on, the topic of how ‘inspiring’ D/deaf people are came up. We laughed and laughed about how mainly hearing people find D/deaf people or any disabled person ‘inspiring’ when they’ve overcome their obstacles in life and are seen to be achieving.

For example Mandy Harvey a deaf singer appearing on ‘America’s Got Talent’, Dame Evelyn Glennie a deaf percussionist or even Helen Keller, the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. These three managed to overcome their barriers imposed by the non-disabled world and became famous for doing so.

My friend and I were discussing how ‘Yes it’s difficult to live your dreams, especially as a D/deaf person in the creative industry. But the word ‘inspiring’ is so cringeworthy. We’re just living our lives and striving for our dreams!’

I’d say the word ‘inspiring’ is cringeworthy as it makes the person doing the ‘inspiring’ more responsible for other people’s actions and behaviour.
The person has strived to achieve their dreams and goals in life and doesn’t need more added pressures from others to be a decent ‘role model’ to get others to do the same.

My friend and I were then being creative with our responses for when people call us ‘inspiring’ and that just made us laugh even more!

The point I’m trying to make is are D/deaf and disabled people really ‘inspiring’ or are they people who relentlessly kept fighting despite their obstacles? Is there a better word that could be used instead of ‘inspiring’? What do you think?

 Lianne Herbert is a deaf professional writer who can be followed on Twitter here. Lianne is also on a Copywriting course to enhance her freelance prospects. She is currently involved with the West Yorkshire Playhouse on a Playwright course.

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Posted in: lianne herbert