The Harmful Effects of Hollywood’s Misrepresentation of Deaf Culture and How to Make a Change

Hollywood has a long history of misrepresenting Deaf culture, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and leaving the Deaf community feeling unheard and overlooked. This Deaf educator explains the damaging effects of these inaccurate portrayals and provides insight into how Hollywood can better represent and support the Deaf community. So, Hollywood, are you ready to listen up and make a change?

Rachel Zemach, Deaf educator, writer, and passionate activist on behalf of Deaf and hard of hearing children and adults, is sharing her experience and expertise in her upcoming memoir, “THE BUTTERFLY CAGE.” She shares captivating first-hand accounts from her life as a Deaf person and explores the differences in thinking between two major, and often conflicting, viewpoints on how to educate Deaf children, and how she saw the two different approaches impacting students.

“Deaf people are typically portrayed on TV and movies as being either disable and objects of sympathy, along with attempts to “help” or “fix” them, or as inspirational overcomers, for example a Deaf child who learns to dance and is accepted by a hearing dance group.The problem with both representations is this: often the characters are played by hearing people, who are clueless about the real-life experiences of being Deaf. Also, both the disability model and the “inspiration porn” model as we refer to it, are inaccurate. Deaf people want to be represented accurately, by the many brilliant Deaf actors out there seeking work, shown as regular people with regular problems and triumphs who just happen to be Deaf,” says Rachel Zemach, Deaf educator and author.

With this, there are a few excellent examples of Hollywood excelling when it comes to representing Deaf characters. 

Zemach goes on to say that, “I used to and I admit, I still, cringe when I saw a Deaf character appearing in one of my favorite shows, afraid the portrayal would ruin my feeling about the show. But recently I’ve been pleasantly and even stunningly surprised. CODA, the terrific, Deaf-cast movie that won Best picture Oscar and a slew of other awards, is one example. New Amsterdam had an incredible, pro-culturally Deaf theme in its finale season, and Grey’s Anatomy last week reversed what looked  like it would be usual, Deaf-as-tragedy theme, just in the nick of time.”
 

Hollywood has the potential to be extremely harmful to the Deaf by mis-portraying us to the public, but they have the same power to do good. How: hire Deaf actors and consult the Deaf  community in the writing of the script. SHOW the signing so Deaf people are not (ironically) left out of accessing the show.