Lately, I’ve been wondering about how D/deaf and Hard of Hearing people choose their IDENTITY. I’m curious about the factors play a role in a deaf person’s choice of how they identify themselves to others. Is it family influence, social influence, educational influence or personal choice?
I used to work as a School Counselor at a deaf residential school for 10 years. I remember one family of 4 who were all deaf - mother, father, sister and brother.
While the older sister was profoundly deaf according to her audiogram, she chose to wear 2 hearing aids, loved to use her voice when she signed, joined a sign/dance group and LOVED to listen to music. I found it interesting that she referred to herself as “hard of hearing” even though she had very little hearing ability.
Her brother, however, had more hearing ability than his sister. He was technically “hard of hearing” according to his audiogram, but he refused to wear hearing aids, used ASL only, did not use his voice, and did not enjoy listening to music. He identified himself as “Deaf.”
This is not about audiograms, and I certainly don’t want to get off into a medical perspective of hearing loss or deafness. I’m interested in personal identity. In the siblings mentioned above, this was also not about one label being better than the other. They were both well-adjusted kids and had a strong sense of personal identity. However, it always fascinated me about how they chose to identify themselves to others and I wondered what leads deaf people to choose their identity.
What is interesting about this family is that both parents had similar issues. The one parent who could hear more, chose not to use hearing aids and identified as big “D”-Deaf. The other parent who had less hearing chose to wear hearing aids and identified more with “hard of hearing” people.
So again, I’m curious. What factors play a role in a deaf person’s choice of IDENTITY? What plays a role in your own identity? Is it about being born with specific sound levels? Is it about being born into a family with a cultural identity? Is it related to the age of onset, family influence, social influence, educational influence or personal choice??? What are your thoughts?
This isn’t deaf related, as I think it’s personal preference, I know my girlfriend’s two boys are half black/white. One will say he’s black and his other brother say he’s white.
Myself I’m HOH fluently in hearing/speaking and ASL but I do say I’m deaf to show others what deaf can do. As I find people in the world don’t have a clue what Hard of hearing really means… soo that’s my point..
I enjoyed your vlogs… smile.. keep it up.. I love the eee -eeee one lol
Left by Anonymous on March 26th, 2007
Hi LaRonda,
I was thrilled to see this post today and I must respond! Identity is something that has been of interest for me for quite some time now–particularly cultural identity (as well as hearing status). Some researchers posit that racial identity theories can be used to understand or model D/deaf/HOH identity theories after. Keep in mind the developmental perspective as well–an individual’s identity may change across time.
I am currently working on my dissertation in this area and I invite you to participate in my study, the focus of which is identity and its relationship to career issues/development in the D/deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities.
I’d also be pleased to share some references with you about identity theories if you like. Thanks and take care, Becky
To participate use this link:
https://www.psychdata.com/s.asp?SID=120527
OR
go to http://www.psychdata.com and ENTER SURVEY #120527
Left by Becky on March 26th, 2007
I don;t think it is all that difficult to know why people adopt various ID’s in the deaf/HoH worlds, they want to fit in, to socialise, if that means cutting loose some of the old ties and traditions, for them it is worth it, even if they don’t really fit the traditional images. Refusing to talk or wear an aid is just the obvious thing to see, it’s not the primary thing. Basically, it could I suppose explode the cultural claims of many, could the answer be so simple ? people just want other people ?
Left by MM on March 27th, 2007
What make hearing aids do you wear and you cover them with your hair? Do you consider them “cool” or a necessity, and did you think this before wearing them?
Left by Martyn on March 27th, 2007
I can identify with the deaf family you mentioned. My son is profoundly deaf (100 dB) but loves wearing hearing aids, music, etc., preferring talking over signing… he talks like a hearing person. My daughter, she has 65 dB loss but acts like a deaf child, preferring ASL, having a deaf attitude, etc. I believe for my son… he was born normal hearing which could be a big factor for his identity. My daughter was born with hearing loss. Family influences… my husband comes from a long line of deaf generations, originating in Syria and there is a lot of shame with deafness in his family. Me, I am the only deaf child (1960’s rubelli time) and a product of oral deaf education.
I always believe that the personalities are present from the birth (or from the conception, actually.) Attitudes change over time, which affect one’s sense of identity. Personalities… never, unless they have brain surgeries. For all I know, David my son could grow up to be a radical pro-deaf adult while Elizabeth could grow up professing to feel more comfortable in the hearing world than in the deaf world. Only God knows.
Fascinating, huh? iammine mentioned something about this, in her comment to Jay’s blog on residential students… that her oldest son was brilliant and so forth when he was a child and now he was a teenager, he was an entirely different person.
Left by Deaf Niches on March 27th, 2007
I am not surprised about the choice. Each child has unique feelings, values, and thoughts about oneself and about what s/he believes in. It is the same idea with children wanting to go gothic, preppy, or hip hop (oversized clothes). Same thing. My sister’s teenaged daughter wanted to wear black all the time (nothing to do with gothic) and we held our breaths for several years. She grew out of it! She is a fine adult today. Give your children time to feel things around. They may or may not change as they get older.
Left by Just Deaf on March 27th, 2007
I was born to hearing family and cannot even hear the music. Even with hearing aids, I cannot hear a tune. If the music has strong base, then I can dance to the beat. That is about it. I grew up dancing based on memorizing counts …five, six, seven, eight.
The Beethoven band is a Deaf band and, boy, they do love music. Steve Longo plays the guitar for the band and he taught my hearing son how to play one. We even bought a guitar from him so our son can start his own band. A hearing band inspired by a Deaf band. How sweet is that?
Also Mike Schmidt is fun to watch when he signs songs.
Keep on blogging!
Julie
Left by Julie Rems-Smario on March 27th, 2007
Hello,
I have post a vlog about that a week ago and like I said in my vlog that we all should allow each person to determine their background. I do believe that the identity changes over time. It’s like being a teenager, and you are growing up and finding yourself, indentity is part of that. We also determine which role is important first and what’s not, for example.. I wanted to be view as deaf person first then as a woman, then as white. Some people would prefer to be viewed by the color of their skin and so forth. I think we all should just let each person make their own decision of who they are rather than us telling them that this is their identity because they came from a deaf family or whatever reasons.
Be your own person.
Patty
Left by Patty on March 27th, 2007
Being your own person can be realtive in the deaf world, I get saddened when you can ask a question to many in the deaf community, and they alll repeat themselves verbatim, I’m reminded rather cruelly of the Stepford sundrome…..this hardly supports the ‘Be your own person’, how much you can be, depends on how far your peer group will allow it, let’s be honest, there is a cut-off point, the true individual cannot really belong to a group, if he has a radical view of things or bucks the trends..
Left by MM on March 27th, 2007
I did not start calling myself Deaf until just recently. For the longest I hated it when people called me deaf. It meant more than just a word. It meant that I was no longer apart of my Hearing Culture. I labeled myself as Hard Of Hearing. Never took it to the word Deaf. My teacher who always called me Deaf had opened my eyes. I call my self Deaf for the things that I can do not the things that I can’t. To me it’s no longer a put down but a true identity that I share with my family and friends. The doctors call me Deaf my family doesn’t but to me it hides who you truly are, and only you know who that is nobody else.
Left by Moley on March 27th, 2007
I was implanted with the CI when I was 6 years old. I had access to spoken language before I had access to hearing via Cued Speech since I was 19 months old.
Even today as I continue to learn more about the deaf community (I’ve only just begun to learn sign language this year), I must confess that I’ve come across this issue quite a great deal as I interact with both the hearing and deaf community. I’ve grown up in the hearing world, and when it comes down to the composition of my friends, the far majority of them are hearing. This is just a product of the fact I was mainstreamed and didn’t have much interaction with the deaf community where I grew up, partly because of the communication gap between cuers and signers.
Right now, I can hear two different birds of the same species chirping away at each other. I hear the squirrels scrambling across the layers of leaves on the ground and their claws scratching around the bark of trees. Yet, I can’t break down lyrics to songs with ease or distinguish speech over loud background noise. That wasn’t always the case, my hearing had slowly improved over the years with each reprogramming session I went to.
In response to your question of identity, I would have to say that the parents play a huge role, but also so do peers. I was completely surrounded by hearing people my whole life so it seemed more natural to want to be hearing just like them.
When I had my second surgery this past December to upgrade my implant to the Nucleus 24, I ended up being deaf for 2 weeks before I was turned back on. I had lost my processor in my fumbling to get my keys out of my pocket since the batteries were dead and I couldn’t find it for a week. The day of surgery, I found out I would have to wait 2 more weeks to get turned on, so I immediately made it clear I needed it to happen sooner than that. It was impertinent I get my hearing the day after Christmas. I couldn’t stand to go out of town over New Years without any hearing.
It was misery. It was horrible. I couldn’t do the things I always wanted to do, such as call my friends to see if they wanted to go out or have conversations with my roommates from our own bedrooms. I couldn’t dare go out. School was out for the holidays, but I ended up staying at home the entire time. I was a very different person.
I’ll always embrace my hearing, but also I’ll always embrace the fact that I’m deaf and that there’s many people out there in many different circumstances, yet share a common link with me through our hearing loss.
Left by Aaron R. on March 27th, 2007
I think the $64,000 question is, does culture have any real bearing at all when you have had access to sound early on ? Things change when the going gets tough, it’s not to get an ID. People gravitate to like, because communication is easier, and it is less stressful, culture seems a transient thing as few are second or third generation deaf as per ‘culture’, it’s re-invented every time, I suggest this is to meet a simple need, and that need is mainly social, and not cultural. I can’t really see someone acquiring a deafness or having had a predominantly oral background ever aspiring to a deaf culture. We don’t care basically, so long as we can communicate we don’t care who to…. which perhaps shatters a few myths. The link is hearing loss, whether this link is ‘common’ to the point of culture…. it’s relative.
Left by MM on March 28th, 2007
I think all of those influence us in some way or other. We had a similar discussion over at Patty’s website and I shared my experiences of two totally different persons and how they identified themselves.
I think that our identities evolve as we move along, learning new things that can contribute to how we see ourselves.
I didn’t get to the point where I felt comfortable calling myself just Deaf until I was in college actually. I think it had alot to do with the factors of my upbringing such as the schools I went to, my friends, and my family. I grew up mostly in mainstreamed programs with a good number of Deaf students. I went to residential schools in 3rd grade and again in my senior year. My family is hearing but signed with me. They had their beliefs of what they thought was best for me. Their beliefs also changed as they understood more as I got older. My Deaf friends also had their own experiences of developing their own identities that I learned a lot from and also challenged my thinking of my own too.
Then throw in our values, beliefs, personality, and temperament and much more along with those external influences you just mentioned.
Left by Jessica on March 28th, 2007
Ah… the good old days, when individualism was allowed….. That’s the problem with the deaf community…. individualism has its limitations if you want to stay in it, as with any other ‘community’. The true individual is only true to his or herself, and isn’t limited by other people’s perceptions, or rules… are there ANY Left ? What is the defintiton of an ID in individualistic terms ? is there one ? I am, therefore that’s it nothing else really counts ?
Left by MM on March 29th, 2007