Rebecca A Withey: What having a deaf contestant on Love Island this year taught me

Just before the summer my phone was buzzing with excitement when a few girlfriends caught wind of a press release from ITV 2’s reality show Love Island. Apparently there was going to be a deaf contestant appearing in their 2022 series!

We googled and discovered that this said contestant was Tasha Ghouri, a 23 year old model and dancer from North Yorkshire. We saw photos of her on Instagram modelling jewellery with a strikingly white cochlear implant in full view.

Loving her confidence and positive approach to deafness, I was looking forwards to seeing her grace our screens and hopefully be a positive dose of deaf awareness for the ITV2 show.

As the series began, it became clear to me and my friends that Tasha’s experience of deafness was different to ours. In the opening scenes, Tasha communicated with (what seemed to be) precision and ease, and was understood easily by the others too.

I remember a friend texting me with disappointment and saying “she’s not representing us, though is she? I wouldn’t be able to understand any of the guys!”

My friends and I laughed whilst contemplating how we would likely need to hire a BSL interpreter if we ever went in the Love Island villa (metaphorically speaking of course!) and how we would probably brush dates off or make awkward mistakes if we couldn’t lipread them.

Tasha, however, fitted into the villa really well, clearly managing to use her cochlear implant and lipreading/intuitive skills to navigate the world of spoken english seamlessly.

When she announced her deafness to the rest of the contestants, declaring herself as ‘being born completely deaf’ and stating how she now wears a cochlear implant which she refers to as her ‘superpower,’ the contestants responded with outpours of sympathy and support.

Yet I was still hopeful that Tasha may teach the villa something positive about her deaf identity or even mention sign language or something similarly attributed to deaf culture.

As the series has now come to an end, with Tasha and boyfriend Andrew finishing in 4^th place, I actually feel that the lessons taught by Tasha were perhaps aimed at the viewers instead of the contestants – and I include myself as someone who has learnt from her.

So here we have it, what have I learned from this years Love Island series, and specifically from Tasha?

1. Never assume.I assumed that by being labelled as ‘deaf’ that Tasha would be representing deaf community members who are like me. I assumed that she would be a sign language user or at least bilingual. However, the deaf community is wide and varied and it was a good reminder for me and those watching that there are individuals out there who use speech alone to communicate and wear different tools for amplification/hearing. Also – after the success of BBC 1’s Strictly Come Dancing with Rose Ayling-Ellis and the enormous exposure BSL and deaf awareness I assumed that ITV2 would have a similar agenda for their own series, which wasn’t the case. However, Rose is entirely different to Tasha. Neither girls can be said to be ‘right or wrong’, they are just two independent individuals with distinct lives.
2. Let people identify as they wish and use language they feel comfortable with.
   
   When Tasha first spoke about her cochlear implant being her ‘superpower,’ I admit I cringed internally. I didn’t see anyone in the villa use the word deaf either and so I wondered why they kept sugarcoating the word deafness and using the phrase superpower…?!!!Yet, here’s what I learned. How someone else refers to their deafness/aids is entirely up to them. What one person is comfortable with, another person may not be at all. We genuinely are all different.Also, I find as our life experience changes our language use does too. As we educate ourself on language use and positivity around deafness and disability, we may even find the way we label ourselves changes.Who are we to decide how someone else prefers to be called?
3. Deafness is still deafness, whatever the level.
   
   When people online complained that Tasha wasn’t ‘really deaf’ I felt differently. Deafness is still deafness, however mild or severe. A cochlear implant may provide a person with sound to access speech and communicate with others but once you take it off, you’re completely deaf in that ear. Throughout the series I noticed how Tasha was never seen without her cochlear implant. I also noticed more and more how she lipread certain people, looked at their faces more and asked people to repeat themselves at certain times.Despite appearing to fit in really easily, Tasha was most likely working really hard on full alert at all times to stay in the conversations. Impressions are deceiving. Although Tasha may have come across as being ‘hearing-like’ in the effortless way she often communicated, I am pretty certain she was working overtime just to stay on the ball.
4. There are still ableist attitudes towards deafness in society.
   
   One of the most entertaining thing to do after watching a Love Island episode is to giggle along with the Twitter feed. That is, until, you stumble upon the ableist tweets aimed at Tasha. Although I don’t personally know Tasha, when I read tweets mocking her voice or her deafness, I felt angry for her. I even felt protective. I realised that this is partly where the sense of deaf ‘community’ comes from, as deaf people unite not only in our strengths but also in our challenges.When someone makes fun of a deaf person for their deafness, they’re offending not just the victim but an entire group of people who are also deaf. I was shocked at the amount of ableist comments on Twitter this year and hope Tasha receives all of the support she requires after the show too.
5. Inclusivity is the way forward – for all communities.
   
   Whilst I would have loved to have seen some sign language taking place in the Love Island villa, I accept that this would not have come from Tasha if this is not something she personally uses.Deafness is not a one size fits all and to declare someone as being ‘more deaf’ than someone else or ‘not really deaf’ is divisive and unhelpful especially if the intention is to shun someone from a community.Just as Tasha is not a 100% representation of deafness, neither are hearing aid wearers / BSL users. Showcasing and portraying all the various ways you can be deaf and can communicate is good and healthy in my opinion, although it’s natural to have a preference of one method over another.In its simplest form, reality shows teach us a lot about society and the types of people that are on the show are usually very limited representations of the wide variety that is in the real world.

Tasha’s involvement on this year’s Love Island was a healthy reminder for me to put aside all assumptions and stereotypes about the word ‘deaf,’ and to remember that deafness does not belong only to those who use British Sign Language, but is something that affects all kinds of people with all types of life experience.

The final thing I learnt from this series was that more than anything right now, we can all benefit from remembering the Be Kind campaign. The language we use online really does hold power, and after the tragedies already associated with Love Island, I truly hope we can be mindful of this going forwards.

Wishing Tasha and Andrew congratulations on placing 4^th and for much happiness to follow!

Rebecca Anne Withey is a freelance writer, performing artist and consultant. She is also profoundly deaf, a sign language user and pretty great lipreader. She writes on varied topics close to her heart in the hope that they may serve to inspire others.