Turning The Table Analysis

Turning the Tables Throughout the course of history, our world has been majority hearing, which in turn makes the Deaf community a minority. However, after learning about Deaf culture you can see that Deaf people are able to “turn the tables” by making themselves the majority, and the hearing community the minority. The first demonstration of how the Deaf community can turn the tables is by using humor. One joke called “The Bar Phone” tells of a a group of Deaf people signing in a bar while a table of hearing people stare at them and mock their signs. One member of the Deaf table gets up to use the phone and signs into the receiver. When he is done, a person from the hearing table tries looking into the receiver out of curiosity. This joke was trying to humorously point out that hearing people can often be gullible and in a case like this, the joke was on them. The Deaf group was able to make the hearing person look idiotic and mock him for his …show more content…
Often this journey starts with a person being deaf, and eventually embracing themselves as Deaf (Bid D). The first example of the theme “coming into the light” that I would like to introduce is the 1948 film Johnny Belinda. This film tells the story of a Deaf girl, Belinda, who lives on a farm and learns sign language from a doctor who she befriends. We watch her go from a shy girl who keeps to herself and wears plainclothes, to a confident young woman who goes out into town and begins taking care of herself, styling her hair and wearing better clothes. This movie shows that after learning a way to communicate, Belinda begins to accept and embrace her Deaf identify and becomes proud of who she is. She leaves behind her self doubt and beliefs that she is incapable of things, and realizes that the only thing different about her is the fact that she cannot