Emily Howlett: We need cultural appreciation, not cultural appropriation

“Hearing people making sign songs is cultural appropriation.”

“Hearing people teaching baby sign classes based on BSL is cultural appropriation.”

“Using a hearing actor to play a deaf character is cultural appropriation.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seeing ‘cultural appropriation’ mentioned a lot recently, in relation to BSL and deaf culture. Or d/Deaf culture, if you prefer (personally I try to keep away from labels that further divide our community, but that’s another topic for another day).

Deaf characters are certainly popular at the moment, in both theatre and film. I’ve been an actor for nearly two decades (shush, I’m still very young, honest) and never seen as many deaf-specific callouts in such a short space of time as the last couple of years. But are these roles always going to deaf actors? Hmmm, no. Are they at least going to native BSL users? Hmmm, also no.

Baby sign classes are having less of a moment currently, due to the pandemic making meeting in groups less enjoyable (everybody wants to learn the wrong sign for ‘milk’, or ‘teddy’, but nobody really wants to risk dying of Covid-19 to do so). However, they are still out there, online, along with sign songs, bringing a lot of respect, fans and money to the people behind them. The deaf people? Well, no… Mostly hearing people, if I’m honest.

Let’s go back and start at the beginning, if such a thing is possible…

The phrase ‘cultural appropriation’ itself came about during the 1970s, mostly in academic discussions and criticisms of Western society. It moved into common usage even more recently; the graph below shows the increase in global web searches for ‘cultural appropriation’, from January 2004 to March 2021.

The spike in searches shows how the term ‘cultural appropriation’ has now become mainstream. But what does it actually mean?
Oxford Languages Online defines ‘cultural appropriation’ as; “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”

Essentially, the term describes any meaningful, creative element (or theme) being taken from one cultural group by another. However, this can happen in a positive way; when the exchange is welcome and balanced, it is not cultural appropriation. Problems arise when there is a dominant group taking from a minority or marginalised group, with no clear benefit to them.

But how does this apply to deaf culture and BSL? Although deaf communities are strong, with a rich and specific cultural history, they are almost never a dominant group. The world is made for, and run by, hearing society. Deaf culture has to fight for its place, and deaf people have to fight to be seen. Constantly. Every day.

So, when a hearing person takes a deaf role, the community are saddened. There are so few deaf characters for us to watch, we want to see real, authentic representation. Hearing actors can audition for literally thousands of roles. All too often, deaf actors can only audition for deaf roles, of which there are very few (despite current interest). It isn’t an equal playing field, and once the hearing actors start ‘learning sign’ to take a role, well, it definitely starts to feel like cultural appropriation.

When a hearing person creates a huge online following (and bank balance) for their very badly translated ‘BSL’ songs, it feels icky… But when this happens while amazing deaf artists who create beautiful, fluid signed sequences are absolutely ignored, it’s just not right. There are several occasions where a hearing person is educated about the possible inaccuracies or disrespect to the deaf community, resulting in them basically firebombing said community and saying they’ve been ‘cancelled’…

Gosh, it’s tricky, isn’t it?

Because the flip side of this is, as well as seeing ‘cultural appropriation’ everywhere, I’m seeing deaf communities start to shut down. They’re still using BSL, they’re still talking about deaf history, and they’re still celebrating what it means to be deaf… but they’re keeping it to themselves. There’s a really strong sense of “well, you’re not going to respect this, so you can’t have it”. People are less supportive of those learning BSL because “it’s just a lockdown hobby”. I’m seeing less deaf-led BSL media because “what’s the point? Someone hearing will get more attention.”

I don’t want my community to be closed down to ‘just for us’. That’s backwards, not forwards.

I don’t want us to be crying ‘cultural appropriation’ every time someone even looks towards the deaf community for inspiration. But I also don’t want to see it trampled and abused, causing pain and more difficulty for deaf people, just so hearings can feel good, or make money.

Our culture is strong, beautiful and, yes, sometimes incredibly difficult and confusing; but it is ours. I don’t want us to have to police it, and say ‘no you didn’t look after it, so you can’t see it anymore’. I don’t want to have to constantly be asking, “Is this ok, or not?”

I just want us to be able to share it, willingly, and have it respected and appreciated. ‘Cultural appreciation’, not appropriation.

Why does that seem so difficult?

Emily Howlett is a profoundly Deaf actress, writer and teacher. She makes an awful lot of tea. And mess. She now has not one, but four grey eyebrow hairs. C’est la vie. She tweets as @ehowlett