Insight: A hard of hearing film buff shares his view on deaf characters in films (BSL)

One of my biggest passions is movies. I enjoy film trivia and quizzes as well as film nights out with friends. I wear two hearing aids as I am moderately deaf in both ears. I can manage to communicate just fine with these and lipreading although I do prefer to have captions on all television and movie shows.

I have a real penchant for sci-fi movies, I would call myself a ‘Trekkie’ and I’ve spent many hours re-watching the Lord of the Rings series, spotting all sorts of nuances each time. My friends say it’s a bit obsessive how much I know about films but they always want to be on my team in a quiz night!

I am currently single as I haven’t met Mr Right but if I did he would definitely need to be a film buff like me, or I’ll be watching shows alone! I enjoy all types of films from my fave sci-fi to action and rom/coms and bio-style movies too.

I am always really excited to see deaf characters appear on the big screen, notably in the marvel movies and also in the thrilling film A Quiet Place. There is also a deaf child in the apocalyptic series I’ve been watching called ‘The Last of Us.’

There’s been quite a few appearances in American films, theres a deaf girl in ‘Feel the Beat’ and of course we had CODA which featured a few deaf people including Troy Kotsur who I thought was really refreshing.

My knowledge of sign is quite good (I used to work at a deaf school) but when it comes to International sign or ASL (American Sign) I have to admit I’m clueless. So I can’t comment on the sign language used in most American movies.

However, there’s one topic I really wanted to bring up in this blog. Why is it every time theres a deaf character in a movie, that they are completely silent with no voice and use sign language only? Is this realistic? I’ve chatted to sign language users who do make sounds with their voice and are far from silent. I think it would be more authentic to allow a deaf actor to use their voice if they wished to.

I hope I don’t come across as rude but is there something wrong with showing a character who uses their own ‘deaf’ voice? I wouldn’t find that offensive at all. I would find it quite realistic. Hollywood seem to prefer those who use sign language only with no voice, perhaps it looks more dramatic, I’m not sure.

I would love to see more deaf characters who are of a wider representation. I’m a hard of hearing, mixed race, queer male. I use my voice for pretty much all of my interaction, even though I’m aware my voice isn’t always spot on and I find some words harder to pronounce.

I do have one friend in particular (female) who uses sign and voice together all the time – wouldn’t this be nice to see on screen? Perhaps we could bring out a new Sex and the City type film with a character who wore hearing aids and spoke and signed?

Also, why don’t we have any deaf characters at the heart of a romance or a rom/com either? Why is it all action and thriller films that decide to use signing characters? The film industry seems to portray deaf people as a stereotype – fluent signers, mute and segregated from the hearing world or with a chip on their shoulder.

Wouldn’t it be fun to see a deaf character in a role that wasn’t deaf-specific? Like some kind of wizarding role or in a big bad gang in New York?

If any film writers are reading this, I hope you might be inspired to write about a deaf character who breaks away from these stereotypes. I’d love to see more variety and less cliché when it comes to deaf characters in movies. Is the only advantage they have over others the ability to sign? I think there could be so much more!

I’ll just leave that there and hope it encourages food for thought!

This blog has been written anonymously as part of the Insight series – where readers are invited to share their story or news about their interesting job with The Limping Chicken. If you have a story to share please email rebecca@rawithey.com 

Image courtesy of i-stock photos.