Lately social media has been abuzz with posts about a young woman and her success on “America’s Got Talent.”
I’m talking of course about Mandy Harvey.
Mandy touched hearts everywhere when she performed an original song she wrote herself entitled “Try” – inspired by her experiences as a hearing person who loses her hearing – and her music – at the age of eighteen.
Obviously she touched judge Simon Cowell’s heart as well, for after telling her “you won’t need a translator for this,” Simon pressed the prestigious gold buzzer, thus sending Mandy on to the live shows.
As a Deaf person myself, I cheered. Certainly I am proud to see Mandy do so well on this show. It does my heart good to see someone standing up on the stage and showing us all the true capabilities of deaf people.
And yet, at the same time I confess to having mixed feelings.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m happy for Mandy. I applaud her achievements, and I support her quest to follow her dreams. I’m glad to see that her dreams are coming true, and she did get the results she had hoped for at this show.
But just what is the dream that this young woman has? To sing with her voice?
That’s great, but bear in mind that this is a hearing ambition, not a deaf one.
Mind you, I am not saying that there are no deaf people out there who haven’t wished at some point that they belt out the blues like Billie Holiday, or rock-n-roll like Elvis. Heck, I wouldn’t mind being able to sing like Stevie Nicks myself.
But as a general rule, the Deaf Community doesn’t value speech…or the ability to sing – be it rap, rock, or Rigoletto. Our lives don’t revolve around the ability to use our voices. Learning to speak is hard when you can’t hear the sounds you’re trying to produce. And American Sign Language (ASL) – the language of the Deaf Community – is a language of the hands, not the larynx. It’s not meant to be spoken. Ours is a visual world, not an auditory one.
So while Mandy’s goal and her accomplishment of such would certainly land her accolades from the Hearing World, it might not be so warmly embraced by members of the Deaf Community.
The concerns revolve around the perceived message that Mandy’s story sends out. Actually, that becomes the question – just what kind of message does this story send out?
“Deaf is okay, but being hearing is better” ???
That if you have a hearing loss – whether mild or profound, you should make every effort to “normalize” yourself to the extent possible: to speak, to lipread…
…to sing?
That the more you are able to “overcome your disability” and do these extraordinary things that one wouldn’t normally expect from an individual with a hearing loss, the more successful you will be? The more you will be applauded?
I have a problem with that.
Look, I get it. Mandy Harvey was born hearing. She grew up with music. Mandy was planning to become a musician when she lost her hearing. Even though she has done the things that have helped her to adjust to being deaf (learning sign language, using interpreters, etc.) she missed music. It played a big part in her life. Given a choice, she probably would like to get her hearing back. I can’t say that I totally blame her.
But there is just something about all of this that makes me uncomfortable.
Although I was born deaf, I grew up in an all-hearing family and was raised as an oral child. While signing is my preferred mode of communication, I can speak and read lips and I have hearing non-signing friends. I can interact in the Hearing World – not as well as people seem to think I do, but I can do it.
But when I do venture into the Hearing World, people are always wanting to pay attention not so much to the fact that I am Deaf, but how well I seem to function in spite of being Deaf. I’m always getting comments like “You speak and lipread so well, it’s hard to believe you’re actually deaf!” They think this is a compliment – they intend it as such. But in reality these kinds of comments make me squirm.
And that’s what makes me squirm here.
What exactly are these people applauding? The fact that Mandy Harvey is a deaf person…
or the fact that she was able to make her deafness “go away” and you could forget about it?
Not that Mandy’s deafness will ever really “go away.” Even the ability to sing won’t change that. She has learned sign language and does use interpreters. She seems to be making the effort to embrace her identity as a deaf person, although I suspect she will always “walk between the worlds” – not hearing, but not fully a member of the Deaf Community either. This isn’t unusual for those who lose their hearing later in life. Mandy does function much like a “hearing person with a hearing loss” as opposed to a culturally Deaf person. That can be a hard place to be, sometimes.
So let me repeat:
I’m happy for Mandy. She seems to be a very nice young woman. I’m told she has a very nice singing voice. She seems to be finding happiness in her life. And she’s certainly showing the world that “Deaf people can do anything…except hear.”
And yet I am still left to wonder…
Would Mandy have gotten the Golden Buzzer if she had been a hearing person who simply came out and performed a song she had written herself?
Was she really being evaluated on her musical skills…
Or on the fact that she succeeded in doing something that most people perceive as being “virtually impossible” for a deaf person to do?
What’s actually being rewarded here?
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Being deaf I couldn’t hear her sing, so I am still puzzled as to what it is all about for deaf people.
You raise a good question, Mervyn. Being that I am Deaf as well, I couldn’t tell how good her singing is. I have been told by hearing friends she actually does have a very nice singing voice; that it is pleasant to listen to. This is probably what makes her so impressive to hearing people – they don’t expect to hear a deaf person be able to sing that well.
But you are right – it is hard for Deaf people to really understand how “awesome” that is for hearing people. If you’ve never heard music, you cannot understand how important it can be in some people’s lives. So what’s all the hoopla about?
I think that is what makes some Deaf people shrug their shoulders and go “so what?”
But even though Mandy didn’t become deaf until she was 18, and still functions in some ways like a hearing person, she is a part of our community. She may not identify herself as a “Culturally Deaf” person, and that is understandable – she didn’t grow up Deaf. But she does know sign language, she does use interpreters. Good for her.
I think the Deaf Community can and should give her their support. But I also think we need to make sure that we educate the Hearing World to understand that Mandy does not represent all Deaf people, nor should Deaf people be compared to her or judged by her accomplishments. There are many talented Deaf people out there who do not use their voices, let alone sing. That in no way diminishes their own accomplishments.
So let’s applaud Mandy…but at the same time, let’s continue to advocate and educate for greater understanding of the Deaf Community as a whole, and for the diversity within the Deaf Community.
It is definitely more extraordinary that she is deaf and sings the songs than if she were hearing and did the same. It’s battle that she has found a workaround in. Leonardo Da Vince is one of the most outstanding painters. If a blind man was able to paint a similar piece, yes, that is more impressive. It shows the strengths of what humans can do if they put their mind to things, rather than just accept things the way they are. Granted some are more talented or even just smarter than others, but when humans are known as being a weak race that often just “create and destroy”, Mandy has shown that humans can be capable of much more. It has nothing to with the ‘deaf vs hearing’ and is not a put down towards the deaf in any way. It’s just an extraordinary thing that even I can’t fathom as a hearing person. You often see athletes at the Olympics who have a disability and go up against those who don’t. We often cheer them on most because it’s defeating the odds. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but they are applauded and respected at the end regardless because there are people without disabilities that are unable to compete at that level. It’s an exceptional thing, not something to take away from.
I was curious to hear what some from the Deaf community may think of Mandy Harvey. I’m hearing (fluent in ASL, with a deep respect for your culture), so seeing her role on the show made me curious to know your perspective.
I don’t know if this will shed some light on her place on the show, because undoubtedly her being deaf has become integral to her role as a contestant. But from my background and study in music as well, her singing and songwriting ability is definitely above and greater than the talents of many other competitors this year. So I do believe she is in the place due to her talent. However, there is that weird feeling that every time they play her story, they are playing her deafness as the curse she had to overcome. It’s an interesting mixture of messages that brought me to wonder what the Deaf community thought of all this.
I do love that it is encouraging the hearing community to respect and value Deaf entertainers as a whole (from the perspective as an advocate for the Deaf community). Perhaps this message would encourage more productions to write and cast Deaf actors? Or Deaf comedians, dancers, and such? Do you think her presence on the show encourages this?
Interesting perception. I understand what you are saying. Since you cannot hear, let me help you understand what hearing people see in Mandy. She has the most beautiful voice. So pretty and one can tell she trained when she was able to hear as she hits the notes so perfectly. She is a joy to listen to. It is her voice and the way she expresses herself while she sings. That is pure talent. Were I not to know she was deaf she would have gotten the buzzer as she is really that good to the hearing world. She lost her hearing but didn’t give up her dream of music. That is an amazing story but it takes her a lot of hard work I read. It is a nice aside like a child who lost his parents young and imersed himself into music to overcome the loneliness of being parentless. It is just a nice side story. Mandy doesn’t distract or send wrong message but just a girl with an amazing voice that does a great job preforming. She is special apart from her disability. That is the story. Hope that helps you understand.
With all due respect, I don’t consider being Deaf to be a “side story.” It’s a significant part of who and what I am.
What you are doing is what hearing people tend to do – they downplay it, they try to make it be something that should become invisible, should be dismissed to the extent possible. It becomes something you HAVE, not something you are:
“Mandy has a disability, she just happens to be deaf but that doesn’t detract from the fact that she can sing beautifully.”
It is this kind of message that bothers me. As Aaron says above, it comes across like “the curse she had to overcome.” And everything seems to focus on how well Mandy has succeeded in doing exactly that.
Your comment here only seems to reinforce that this is indeed the message many hearing people are getting from Mandy’s performance.
I am a Deaf person who grew up in a hearing world. My entire family is hearing, and I attended hearing schools. I speak and lipread well, and I have been told I have very good, clear, and comprehensible speech. I was even on the Speech and Debate team in high school. Yes, I had to take music class and sing along with my classmates. But while I do enjoy music and do sometimes sing in private, I certainly do not have Mandy’s voice, and that was made painfully clear to me when I got older and was laughed at by classmates who found my off-tune singing to be the perfect fodder for their teasing and taunting.
So while I appreciate your sharing your views on Mandy’s musical ability, the message that comes across between your words does leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I’ll add my impressions having watched the show for years, and having some experience with the deaf community and always trying to be sensitive to their feeling that hearing people want to “normalize” them. I certainly haven’t gotten the impression that her being deaf is just a “side story” by ANY means. It’s been a completely integral part of her story from Day One. But the show only does very short 1-2 minutes segments on each contestant. That’s not a heck of a lot of time to tell a story, and they have to do it in a way that best gets a viewing public to in some way relate with the person and buy into their story. Also there can be backlash if viewers think that you are putting a contestant through for their story more for their talent, so it’s not unusual for judges like Simon to say things like “I want to judge you as a singer, not based on your story”. It’s not intended to “sideline” who she is so much as to not make the audience think she is getting a pass due to the fact she is deaf. I think they’ve done a reasonably good job of treading that fine line with Mandy (compared to some other contestants where the sympathy angle is slavered on so heavy you wouldn’t be able to cut it!)
As a hearing person but someone that deals with fairly severe disabilities myself, I never felt that her deafness was presented as a “curse” so much as something that stood in the way of something she REALLY wanted, and that she wasn’t going to accept being told that she can’t sing just because someone told her it wasn’t possible. I do wonder if some backlash for how it was presented early on may have gotten back to the show’s producers though as her most recent intro included a piece where she talked about how much beauty she experiences in her life now and realizing that it doesn’t need sound, that music doesn’t need sound. What matters is the heart. So they are trying to make it clear on the show that her hearing is not something she wants back or sees as a curse in some way.
And that is a big part of why people have been so impressed by her appearances on the show, because she is not only an extraordinarily good singer (I suspect she has what we call perfect pitch, not sure how she is able to stay in tune so well otherwise….although I have seen a lot of comments from detractors that don’t think it’s that big a deal she can sing… most of whom probably couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives!) She is certainly one of the best singers the show has seen IMO, as well as a very talented songwriter, she emotes and connects with the audience SO WELL.
And that ultimately is what singing is about. It’s art and emotion and poetry and sharing something of yourself, much more than just singing a song in tune, that people connect to emotionally, and that’s what the best singers do. If you have ever felt so happy OR so sad you just felt your heart would burst out of your body…. music is like that actually happening in sound… the same as painters do it on a canvas, or writers do it on the page, or actors do it on the screen. Singing in tune by itself doesn’t move people any more than writing grammatically correct sentences will convey a good story. And it’s why so many people sing even though they are NOT able to carry a tune well! So I don’t see Mandy as trying to get back to the hearing world by singing….it’s that it’s the way she learned for expressing herself, that she BEST knows how to express emotion. That she can do it so well is just a bonus for the rest of us that get to hear her and take that journey with her.
So viewers certainly appreciate the story of how she got here, but not specifically that she “overcame” losing her hearing, I think it’s just as much that we ALL can so easily relate to being told that we can’t do something or it’s too hard for us to do, and not being willing to accept that for something we really want and working REALLY hard to make it happen. It’s a common part of the human experience that inspires people to do the same for themselves. And I get that this is part of the objection, to presenting deafness in any way as a limitation to be overcome… but if your dream is to be a singer, it certainly is. I’m not sure there’s any way to present her story that can get around that basic truth. Since she has routinely used ASL on stage, including signing the lyrics as she sang during this week’s semifinals, I don’t see her as trying to have people forget she is deaf though, including her intro this week that including making the sound disappear and then close captioning her commentary instead of where she has spoken it before, which to a hearing person is a very abrupt interruption in the sound that reminds people that she IS deaf, and even though she will probably never as you say, be considered a true member of the cultural deaf community due to losing her hearing later in life, she certainly seemed very proud of being the first person to use ASL on the show, and routinely signs as she is speaking to the judges as well, which certainly seems to be embracing her identity as best she can and hopefully seeing her up there might encourage other deaf persons to come on, that only speak through an interpreter and could maybe widen the public’s understanding of that community as well.
I’ll add that the irony with Mandy is she probably won’t win on the show for a couple reasons… one being that another contestant (a young girl that sings and does ventriloquism) not only has the “cute little girl” thing going on but from the comments I see is perceived as being more talented and unique than Mandy. Darci certainly is very talented for her age, but not all that unique and still needs a lot of seasoning and maturity to really be a pro in her field. Mandy has that unique combination of traits and life experience to all come together in a way that I’m not sure we will see again in a VERY long time, if ever. While the show has certainly not shied away from talking about Mandy being deaf and mentioned in her auditions how that creates a challenge to sing in tune, they haven’t really done much to explain that in any detail such that people truly understand how much of an obstacle that really is. They will “sort of” mention it but it’s more or less in passing without any context, as a result I often am seeing comments on her saying that since she was a trained singer before losing her hearing, what’s the big deal? All she had to do was learn was how to stay in tune (like that is easy when you can’t hear??) Maybe you have to be a musician to realize how difficult and unique what she is doing is (she certainly has to have perfect pitch, the ability to reproduce a sound at a certain frequency solely from memory, a very rare trait even among musicians.) Not to mention the difficulty she would have to learn and sing recent, popular songs…often considered the way a singer can best connect to the audience to get their votes. They really haven’t done any of that with Mandy such that people really understand what losing your hearing would mean for a singer. My guess is that they have tried to steer away from that to avoid it coming across as inspiration porn… leaving most people to judge her primarily just as a singer…who just also happens to be deaf. Which considering that a LOT of people are tired of seeing singers win and are always looking for another type of act to give their vote for, and there being such an act this year and a kid no less, means she’s probably not going to win.
But the other comment I see is people that talk about her having the “deaf vote” locked up, assuming just because she lost her hearing, people in the deaf community would all band together and vote for her. Which just shows how little understanding the hearing world has about the deaf community, since if ANYONE would be critical of her appearance on the show and the way she was portrayed it would be people who are deaf particularly from birth. Even if they watch the show at ALL considering the high percentage of singers that it has. I do hope though that they will give her their support even if there’s some things that may bother you about the inclusion of her on there (if not your vote!) and not be overly critical, because she truly comes across as a humble, sweet and very special person that has been so gracious and self-effacing while still showing a great deal of confidence and poise on such a big stage. I really get the impression watching her that most of all she wants to do right by the deaf community even if a choice made in pursuit of that goal would hurt her chances of winning. As I do think based on the majority of comments I see from show watchers, that that has probably been the case.
As a hearing person who deeply respects the deaf community, I’d like to express to you the beauty, and deep feeling that Mandy’s voice projects. Like another commenter said, whether deaf or hearing, Mandy is by far one of the most talented singers on the show. She is able to draw her audience in at a level that very few artists have ever done.. Mandy doesn’t sing just as another singer sings, and it’s not only in her voice, but in the way she uses her voice to make such a deeper feeling when you listen.. I apologize if this makes absolutely no sense to someone who was born deaf, but I had to attempt to communicate just how special Mandy is, not just because she is a singer who is deaf, but because she is able to communicate such feeling through her music..
I applaud your heartfelt honesty in this post. I am a hearing person who’s mother is a speech language pathologist, so I was taught to respect deaf people as they are and not people that should accommodate the hearing world. And I also realize that I cannot possibly comprehend a life without sound or the discrimination and sense of loyalty to a community that I cannot be a part of. But I do understand the conflicted points you presented. I know deaf people have often been looked upon as damaged people overcoming their tragic disability, which is BS.
Deaf or hearing, Mandy Harvey is a supremely talented singer who is better than most commercially successful performers. So while being that amazing AND deaf is even more astonishing, she isn’t there because the hearing world feels sorry for her or is impressed by her ability to seem “normal”. But I really want to address your mixed emotions.
Mandy isn’t like either of us. For 18 years she lived a hearing life. During that time she obviously developed a great love of expressing herself through music and songwriting. Please understand that her story and ambitions do not appear to be a rejection of or attempt to escape from her deaf life. She has clearly embraced it. It’s just that once one becomes infected with a love of musical expression and has the talent to do it well, losing the ability to make and share music is much more devastating than losing the ability to hear. You see, the professional (and trying-to-be-professional) music world is a culture unto itself as well. For them, creating music is a part of their soul, and she lost a critical tool that everyone thought was needed for that process. She does not aspire to be a “hearing-like” person. But because of her previous experience as a hearing singer, when she plucks the strings on an instrument, feels the vibration in her throat, and even the tension in her chest and diaphragm, it doesn’t matter if she can hear it. She still emotionally feels the message and experience. I’m sure someone who has never heard sound cannot fully understand this. Even many hearing people don’t understand the love of music, and even more don’t understand the passion of making it, so the deaf community isn’t alone on this one. But for Mandy, she no longer needs to hear the music in order to feel it, and that is all any musician ever needed.
I don’t think you should look down on Mandy or say she may never completely be part of the deaf community because she aspires to sing. Surely you would agree that the misguided perceptions of a few ignorant, even if well-meaning, people shouldn’t affect our opinions of her actions. She is just expressing beautiful emotions and experiences in the way that works best for her. And luckily for the hearing world, she is fantastic at it, by any measure. Maybe some day she will be able to use this medium that is so powerful for the hearing to help us better understand the world that she now shares with you.
I hope this helps you better understand what she is doing, and why I firmly believe it is not an attempt for her to “overcome deafness”.
Also – she must be only partially deaf yet that is not stated
Sam,in looking for some more online information about Mandy, articles do describe her as having a complete hearing loss. I would not be surprised if she uses certain hearing aids that while they would not work for her to hear normal speech, would allow her to hear certain sound frequencies to help making staying on pitch and on tempo easier. There is a deaf opera singer in the UK that is able to continue singing due to that kind of assistance. But she is routinely described as having perfect pitch as I suspected… that’s the very rare ability that makes this possible for her. Here’s an old article about her that talks about how she is able to sing so well: http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14938144
DanP – that was a beautifully written reply! I think the one thing we all share as fellow human beings is having passions for things that other people just don’t quite understand. You don’t have to lack the ability to do something either, to NOT get why someone might be so passionately driven to do it. My passion for dog training and competing is something other people just really don’t get at all, to the point that family members will start rolling their eyes if I start talking about it, but when I’m with friends that share the same passion, we can just discuss our dogs and training methods and dog care, and how to outfit our cars and every conceivable thing related to it without getting tired or bored. Many of my friends compete pretty much every free weekend, spend huge amounts of money, all for a sport that will never earn them a single bit of money or recognition (outside their peers). I now participate in cosplaying ( and run a FB group for Cosplaying with Disabilities) and people that don’t cosplay are completely baffled by the amount of time and money and effort people put into “dressing up”…for nothing more than the fun of showing off your work and having others take your picture. Whatever passions people have, there seems to always be a drive to share that with others and especially to have people enjoy what you put out there. That’s why there are competitions for Air Guitar or people that get together to talk about the books they read or to work on crosswords together. There are few things in life more joyous than finding something you love, doing it well, and having other people appreciate it. To be able to have all that… and make it a paying career too? That’s something few of us will ever get to experience.
An emaotional story does have an impact on the judges and the voters. But Mandy Harvey is a fantastic singing who song with great emotion. Last week she performed and signed and showed the same emotion in her signing. I have been an interpreter at my church and it drives me crazy to see interpreters who are just matter of fact and put no emotion in the Interpreting. Mandy Harvey has found a way to keep her music dream alive while embracing who she is as a deaf person. It just happens she can do both. She has been singing for a long while, and has recorded albums. AGT is just giving her a platform to gain more notice. She is not trying to ignore her deafeness or separate from deaf culture. I feel like more than anything she is trying to bridge gaps between the hearing and dear worlds. Her popularity has caused many hearing people to become interested in learning to sign. The more folks try to learn and communicate with the deaf community the more interaction we can have with each other. The worlds shouldn’t be separated. Much more joy should abound because we can bring them together!!
Please forgive my big thumbs on a little phone typos.