Last night was one of the most spontaneous incidents of fun I have ever engaged in. Three people, three laptops, a dinner table and the lounge room, sounds rather dirty I know, but it was good, clean fun; and it involved Facebook, blogging, a crabby laptop that took forever to load, some wine, and bloody good sense of humour.
I would love to describe the unfolding scenario and chaos, but really you just had to be there. It’s a moment worthy of Monty Python, but like I said, you just had to be there. Though the more technologically savvy would understand the implications of people, laptops, dinner, wine, loungeroom and Facebook!
Don’t even ask about the time I thought I was locked in the men’s toilet, only to discover I had been banging on the wrong door! That’s a story for when I am lying in the arms of an angel 
What I want to talk about, is an issue that cropped up this morning when I was talking to a friend on MSN, or was it Yahoo? *Shrug*, about a comment I posted on Facebook, in reply to a comment another friend made regarding Australian modern day attitudes to disability:
Disability rights is heading back into the Dark Ages again……
My comment was a succinct:
When did it leave the Dark Ages.. you mean the able bodied people have gone back to dragging their knuckles on the ground?
I don’t have an issue with the comment. Of course I wouldn’t, I am the one expressing it. It is a general comment, and not aimed at anyone in particular. I have seen it used in a TV show where a female character remarked that a male character had gone to a training course to learn how to lift his knuckles off the ground. It expresses the rage and frustrations of a minority group, about the majority.
I understand that my friend’s feelings were hurt, but as I said, the comment was an expression of frustration delivered in a tone dismissive of hearing people, who are the dominant group, and are responsible for the issue that continually plague Deaf and hearing impaired people’s lives. I was not having a go at her, or being dismissive of her genuine friendship and attempts at understanding.
Have a gander at this article, Listen – We Have Something To Say! for one example of what we Deafies are continually screaming about!
Like I said, this is not a diatribe against my friend, nor is it indicative of her attitudes. It is a topic for discussion though, and one that is not debated enough. I just thought to raise it, to make people aware.
I’m not apologising for the comment I made, or how I expressed it, but I do get that many people won’t see the comment for what it is. That’s not my fault. I am not to blame for other people’s ignorance, or their lack of will to educate theselves. There is only so much awareness raising a person in a minority group can do, before they wanna scream: “Just get fucked!”
Further into our chat, my friend pointed out that comments like the one I made, can make people defensive and creates more walls that impede communication and understanding. I disagree. Vehemently so. It insinuates that I am the one who is Deaf, I am also the one responsible for creating awareness about my deafness. That is true up to a point. When you are continually butting heads, is it any surprise that Deaf people make the comments they make?
Unlike many, I am actually motivated to understand different minority rights, the perspectives afford by women, deafness and disability, people of colour, anti-semitism, Gay and Lesbian rights, et al. I consider it important to understand our differences as well as our commonalities. I consider it important to acknowledge that we are all human beings with different needs, that should all be accommodated as a basic human right. Not to spend our lives continually having to fight for them.
I can also say, that I actually get some of women’s perspectives on their place in the world. I can see the social expectations heaped on them. Not in the sense of understanding their bodies, what they experience and so forth, but as human beings who have their gender used as a weapon to control and oppress them. For what it’s worth, I also get the following joke:
What’s that useles speice of skin at the end of a penis called?
A man!
All groups have their in-jokes at the expense of the majority oppressors. It’s called “cultural inversion”, which places the minority culture in a temporary status of superiority over the majority.
And, I think your friend was taking your comment a little too literally. After all, you didn’t say that Hearies are knuckle-draggers. You were suggesting that to be worse, they would have to go back to knuckle-dragging.
Semantic difference, I know….