After leaving the excellent Deafhood workshop given by Ella Mae Lentz, David Eberwein and Genie Gertz at NTID last March, my fellow Canadians and I mulled over the term deafness as being negative… similar to sadness, illness, madness, etc, whereas Deafhood is defined as the positive possibilities that comes with our being Deaf. One young friend asked: What about happiness? That is a positive term ending with –ness! That caused me to think further upon the topic.

Happiness is defined as a state of well-being and contentment (Merriam-Webster dictionary). A positive term. Now, let’s look at a negative term. Madness is defined as the quality or state of being mad (Merriam-Webster dictionary, again) Both terms have the same suffix, and similar definition: a state of being.

For the sake of this discussion, I submit that the suffix -ness is defined as the state of being… Thus, sadness, illness, madness, and happiness are all temporary conditions that can be affected for the better, or worse, by any number of factors.

Deafness could be defined as the state of being deaf. Therefore, in the medical community, deafness is a condition that must be ameliorated, and fixed if at all possible. Thus, early infant screening tests and cochlear implants come into existence. The term deafness is accepted by those who view their “condition” as hopefully changeable to any degree, preferably to what is “normal”. Deafness is a pathological term that needs to be done away with.

This pathological perspective keeps us in a state where we constantly compare ourselves unfavourably with the “normal” Hearing people. Normal??? What is normal, anyway? In whose eyes? Normalcy is in the eye of the beholder, and thus a very subjective term. One person’s definition of normal isn’t necessarily the same as another person’s. Hence, this act of comparison must stop.

Deafhood is defined as being “in essence an assertion that being deaf and being different from hearing people has a positive value for mankind and nothing to combat against like a disease.” (Wikipedia) It is the process (a journey) of examining one’s identity as a Deaf person. A soul-searching, in other words, to define oneself as Deaf in the linguistic and cultural sense. This is a quite empowering concept.

Which perspective do I choose? Deafness or Deafhood? Do I choose deafness… the state of being deaf, a condition that would hopefully change? Or do I choose Deafhood…the process of defining myself as a proud linguistic and cultural Deaf individual, who happens to be bilingual? I know where I am in my journey.

Do you know where you are in your journey?

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Note: I have yet to read Paddy Ladd’s “Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood“, but that is next on my list of must-read books.