February 21, 2013

Am I Crazy??


I don't watch a lot of tv, but I watch Once Upon A Time religiously.  The other show I try to keep up on is Switched at Birth.  It is a show about two girls who were, obviously, switched at birth.  The twist is that one of them is deaf and so there is a lot of teaching about deaf culture on the show, which I think is great.  The other night I was watching Switched at Birth via the internet and there was a scene where the deaf kids at the deaf school were in their kind of deaf cultures class and the teacher proposed the question that if there was a pill that they could take and wake up the next morning being able to hear, would they actually take it.  Each student in the class went on to say that being deaf has made them stronger and special in different ways and said that even if this magical pill came to be, they would not take the pill and continue to be deaf.  Now, I completely agree that these types of things in our lives can and will make us stronger, but if someone told me that there was a pill that I could take to get rid of diabetes (even though it has strengthened me and made me special) I would freaking take that pill!  Am I crazy to be willing to give up diabetes to have a working pancreas again?  Am I crazy to think it is odd that a fictional group of deaf teenagers would refuse the ability to hear? Would anyone else out there take or not take a pill to cure them?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have NF. Trust me I would take it. However deaf is different. They are a proud culture and it is who they are. I took a lot of asl classes and learned a lot. No teachers I had would take it .....ps I miss you!

Bailey said...

If I had diabetes I would take the pill too. If you came across someone who is deaf and has diabetes they would take the pill too. For the diabetes. Not for being deaf. It is a pretty accurate portrayal of the deaf community. I know the writers of the show try to keep it pretty authentic. With that said it is somewhat of a generalization. I'm sure somewhere out there is some 14 year old deaf girl who is saving up for a cochlear implant. It's a very personal decision, but on the whole they don't feel like they need to be "fixed".

RCA said...

very nice...