My Experience Watching Netflix's Deaf U
- Dave Giatras
- Oct 12, 2020
- 5 min read
To anyone who knows me, I am a deaf man who wears a cochlear implant in order to hear. When I was a senior in high school, I really wanted to play college basketball. Problem was, I didn't have a shot in hell of playing anywhere, nor did I have any playing time to show for it but that's a story for a different day! So I did some research and came across Gallaudet University, one of the few universities in the United States that catered specifically to deaf and hard of hearing students. While I ultimately didn't follow through with it, I was surprised to hear Gallaudet University years later would be the focus of a Netflix show: Deaf U. As a deaf person, it immediately drew me in because there really isn't a lot of programming that predominantly follows deaf people or characters nowadays.
Deaf U is a docusoap that follows a group of deaf and hard of hearing students at Gallaudet and the ups and downs of their college lives. The first thing to jump out at me is that the series isn't what I expected it to be at all. I was expecting it to be more about the school and not their personal lives, but all of that went away after the first two scenes. A student asking another out via ASL (American Sign Language) through their apartment building windows, and a bisexual couple talking about how men are terrible at giving women orgasms. Right away I knew I was in for something different!
Many moments occurred that I related to as a deaf person. Rodney's shock that Dalton flushed his hearing aids down the toilet after deciding he didn't want them is a shock I would certainly share. Some other moments include: various characters talking about how people will stare at them/their hearing aids, switching between having their hearing aids on or off, joking about their deafness, and difficulties of speaking with hearing people in loud places (bars, clubs, etc.). They even go as far to say that it is fairly easy to talk smack about someone right to their face using ASL since those not fluent in the language wouldn't even understand they're being roasted! Another surprising revelation to me about the show was how prone Gallaudet was to gossip. Many of the cast explain that since Gallaudet has fewer students than your traditional university, gossip spreads quickly. I think this made for compelling television and it really drives home the point that deaf and hard of hearing people have the same kind of problems as normal people with school, relationships and love. The show also touches on some more serious trauma such as abortion, abuse, drugs and other heavy topics that I certainly wasn't expecting.
The series focuses heavily on deaf culture at Gallaudet. Conflict arises between the "Elites" and non-Elites. Elites are students from multi-generational deaf families that went to deaf schools and had a deaf upbringing, while non-Elites are more considered from the "hearing world". This surprisingly leads to a lot of conflict in the show, as the Elites can be extremely judging and makes it tough for some non-Elites to fit in at the university. The Elites are focused on preserving deaf culture, language and traditions, something that they feel others may sometimes be very connected to the hearing world. Executive producer Nyle DiMarco, a deaf model and activist, gives a great quote about this: "95% of deaf kids in our community are born to hearing parents who don't sign or who aren't culturally aware". This was evident in the case of Cheyenna, a non-Elite who ended up dropping out of Gallaudet when she couldn't find her place at the school after getting criticism for "catering" to the hearing world/viewers on her YouTube channel. It really opened my eyes to the fact that just because everyone at the school is deaf or hard of hearing, they do not all get lumped into one group which leads some to feel like outcasts.
I finished this show in one afternoon and I have to be honest, it set me on a path of self-reflection. I realized that I am part of that 95% that DiMarco was talking about. I was born hearing and when I was three years old, I went deaf after a bout with meningitis from an ear infection. I was part of the first wave of cochlear implants to help me hear again. To see on the show that some people looked down on those with cochlear implants was surprising, and it made me realize that I'm not really connected to deaf culture at all. I don't sign since I was raised in what they call "the hearing world", and other than going to a deaf and hard of hearing preschool, I had a traditional upbringing and education. My deafness is normally the thing that sets me apart from others, whether it be classmates, coworkers, or teammates. One character on the show Rodney (who hears through a cochlear implant like me) talks about how he feels like he is between both worlds: the hearing world and the deaf world. That quote really hit me hard because I feel exactly the same way. However, after watching the show it really dawned on me that I don't have any deaf friends and haven't had any since preschool. Is that a bad thing?
This reminds me of an essay I wrote in film school three years ago. My instructor, the great Rachael Mason, in our Comedic Literature class (yes, seriously) had us read Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. Gay writes a collection of essays about being a feminist whilst enjoying things that may go against traditional feminist ideology. After we finished the book, Rachel challenged us to write a "bad" essay about ourselves involving an aspect of our life. This led me to writing an essay I would have never expected to write: Bad Deaf Person. I make a case as to why I consider myself to be a bad deaf person including: not being fluent in ASL, not having any deaf friends, having to explain my cochlear implant over and over again, and not having a lot of "deaf experiences". After watching Deaf U it had me beg the question: should I do more to be connected with deaf culture? If I attended Gallaudet, I feel I definitely would have struggled to keep up with everyone else. I definitely wouldn't be considered an Elite. It also made me realize that I am overdependent on my cochlear implant and if it just disappeared forever one day I would have to learn a language and culture from scratch! Do I think its a bad thing that I am deaf yet not super connected to deaf culture? Not necessarily. I've been lucky enough to have some great experiences and have met some great people along the way, and I really have never let me deafness stop me from doing anything I want to achieve. But maybe I should keep a closer eye on deaf culture than I have and learn some basics in ASL. You never know when it could come in handy. Its really the first time in awhile I've had so much self-reflection on myself as a deaf person.
I highly recommend giving Deaf U a view on Netflix if you've ever wanted to see what life is like for deaf and hard of hearing people, but regardless it makes for some compelling television. It was great to see some deaf representation as well, but it also shows me that we still have a long way to go in the industry. Hopefully this is the start of it and gets the ball rolling! I hope that it gets renewed for another season in the future, but who knows nowadays. The best we can do is hope for the best! I have also attached my Bad Deaf Person essay from my film school days below, give it a read if you want! Stay healthy and stay safe everyone.
コメント