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?
Mandy’s was okay, but her voice wasn’t stellar. She has some good songs, but as a vocalist, she’s very mediocre.
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.
Mandy was okay, but her voice wasn’t stellar by any means. She was alright, but nothing special or phenomenal about her talent.
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..
“Mandy is by far one of the most talented singers on the show”
Are you sure about that? Yeah she’s deaf, but her voice was just average. There are far better singers that have been on the show in the past.
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”.
Supremely talented performer? I’ll admit, she’s not the worse singer out as there are worse, but even with that being said, there are definitely much better singers out there.
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.
Fantastic singing with emotion? She’s alright, but her voice is average at best. Listen to Lea Salonga or So Hyang if you want fantastic singers with emotion. Not they are incredible.
Here is the thing…
This is a DEAF blog. The owner of this blog is Deaf, and she uses it to share her thoughts and feelings as a Deaf person.
And yet this particular blog post has been overrun with comments made by HEARING people who felt like they just had to come on here and give their two cents worth about Mandy.
That’s fine and good…comments are welcomed.
But what isn’t welcomed is the manner by which several of you are leaving these comments here.
I’m sure that many of you have heard of the term “mansplaining”… and how irritating and offensive that feels to women.
Well, what many of you are doing here is the hearing equivalent to mansplaining. And to me as a Deaf person, it comes across just as irritating and offensive.
It comes across condescending, patronizing, and privileged. It comes across as folks taking a superior attitude, petting poor lil me on the head and going “now, now – you can’t possibly understand why Mandy is so impressive, so let me explain that to you.” Like I’m too stupid to figure it out on my own, so I gotta have a bunch of hearing people to tell me. And when I share my own thoughts, you have to shoot them down by correcting me and telling me how “Well, I am not sure you quite get it, so let me tell you now that it’s not what you think.”
Actually, it ***IS*** what I think. This is a Deaf blog, I created it, I am Deaf, and I use this site as a chance to express the Deaf Voice. That’s the only voice that matters here.
Do you folks really not get how insulting you truly can become? Are you really even trying to talk to me, or just basically doing what hearing people tend to do – take over and oppress Deaf people’s voice, while continuing to discuss topics that the majority of you have no real understanding of, but nevertheless feel perfectly qualified to comment on??? Whether it be deafness, sign language, interpreting, Deaf Culture…anything related to being Deaf – hearing folks just have to show us what they know – which in reality is very little. Oh sure, you might tell us how you’ve been an interpreter, how your mother is a speech & language pathologist, how you deal with fairly severe disabilities, etc. etc. etc. as if all of that qualifies you. Sorry, but it doesn’t.
But you all have to tell us “how much you respect deaf people.” Yeah, you respect us enough to come on here and basically take over this whole blog article with your own thoughts and opinions. Heck, some of you were not even content with just one comment, you had to put up no less than four of them.
All of this has left a sour taste in my mouth. I just find myself groaning and rolling my eyes when yet another hearing person leaves a comment here. “Here we go again – I’m wrong, you’re right…and now you’re going to explain to me why I am wrong, while at the same time trying to convince me how much you really respect deaf people.”
Yeah…right.
Sorry to continue to overrun your blog, but i need to apologize to you and everyone else. Apparently I turn into a jerk when writing at 2:00 a.m. I reread my post, and I am not just sorry but actually mortified. I cannot believe the way I wrote that, especially the second half. What the hell was I thinking, presenting my thoughts like that???? I don’t know what to say, I am so sorry and embarrassed. Ocean, I know your thoughts are yours and I really didn’t want to tell you how to think, despite the fact that I wrote exactly the opposite of that. I cannot apologize enough. I read your original post out of curiosity and a desire to learn. Somewhere in the middle of my post, it went off the rails. I stand by thoughts, but my god, I could not have written them in a worse way. That is not the way I communicate with ANYONE. I have no idea why I phrased it that way. This should have been a discussion about something wonderful that’s going on right now. I’m sorry I contributed to screwing it up.
Reading Dan’s reply I realized I didn’t apologize very well to you myself Ocean, so will add one more post here to make sure you do know how bad I feel about you having to deal with this influx of hearing people spouting all their opinions on your page! Just so you know, in my case at least, I wasn’t looking for what a deaf person’s impression of Mandy was and to debate them about it… your blog article just happened to be one of the first ones that came up on her when I googled looking for more information on her background and like any reality show fan, it’s hard to resist chatting with other people about someone that you really like on a show…. and compared to some of the inane and really dumb comments on other sites like YouTube, you had so much more interesting and insightful comments about her that I just got caught up in enthusiasm over being able to talk with some other people about her in more than just a “she sucks, she’s great” type of superficial conversation. But I do feel pretty embarrassed as well re-reading some of my comments how completely insensitive and condescending they come through as. I’ve long believed that people’s blogs and FB pages, etc. should be theirs to share their ideas and thoughts without having to deal with a whole bunch of other people jumping in and criticizing them so I really do apologize for what clearly were not appropriate comments to have made here. But I’m definitely now a fan, particularly of your brutal honesty, and have enjoyed discovering your blog and reading some of the other postings on here (while keeping any thoughts to myself, LOL!)
So, after reading the comments as well as the posts, I find the dynamics quite interesting (the hearing commenters toward this subject). At first, I hesitated to reply, but I will be brief.
First off, the reason why I read this post was because I wanted to see how the deaf community really felt about this singer. While the hearing world tends to put an emphasis on how music sounds, there’s an aspect to music that’s purely visual and I wonder how well that is conveyed (in general).
For me, I prefer watching videos of people signing music and watching the facial expressions, body movements and signing interpretations more than I like to listen to music. There’s that feeling of being connected to the music universally, regardless of language barriers.
So, for me, I just want to thank you – Ocean1025 for your insight. I found it rather helpful. As a person who’s interested in learning more about the deaf community, what you said made sense to me. So, thanks!
I’m sorry if anything I wrote came off offensive… I totally get what you mean about “mansplaining” but my long replies, etc. are pretty much how I tend to write on any topic of interest, not specific to this topic and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that it probably came off as condescending (I do have Aspergers so can be somewhat clueless about that and tend to ramble on)… so sorry for filling your blog with unwanted “hearing” opinions particularly if that was bothering you.
To be honest I was kind of surprised you hadn’t replied sooner, if it was indeed not appreciated, but you DID after all end the post with some questions that really only a hearing person could answer! 😉 I thought as well that it would be interesting for those that don’t watch the show or particularly communicate with other fans to have some more insight on how she is perceived by hearing people watching the show, etc.
When you say that it’s like we were saying “You can’t possibly understand why Mandy is so impressive” that’s actually the opposite of what I was trying to say, because it’s hearing people that I think really don’t get it, and that I see shrug off what she is doing as “no big deal” or the ones that question whether she truly is deaf or not. You are certainly right that when listening to her sing, it’s VERY easy to forget that she is deaf. If she didn’t sign when she talked she could probably have passed on the show for a hearing person (although I know using ASL while talking is often frowned upon as well, right?)
I think it certainly is appropriate to question if the show is just using her as inspiration porn and about portraying her loss of hearing as a tragic event…her background piece for the finale certainly focused extensively on her difficulty getting over losing her hearing and I would guess probably wasn’t what a lot of people would have wanted to see rehashed for her last appearance. I wasn’t born with physical disabilities so I absolutely get that my experience isn’t the same as someone that is born with one, and that I cannot understand a different disability anymore than an able-bodied person understands me. And I’m still trying to get a handle on a lot of these things like inspiration porn and able-ism and and how to really identify such things, so it most definitely would not surprise me at ALL if I might say that would come across as offensive to someone else with a disability, etc. Even just the appropriate order of words is so much to remember sometimes!
Recently I went to a convention, where they had a young man in a wheelchair go to the front of the line in practically EVERY single panel to ask a question, not allowing other fans to have the same opportunity as a result. The longer it went on, the more ridiculous it looked and really pissed a lot of us off particularly since their treatment of those of us that use wheelchairs was in almost every other way severely lacking and ignored. I have a much harder time with something like Mandy’s singing… which because I have a background in music just fascinates me in terms of the mechanics and process of how she is even doing it….particularly since I am *terrible* at singing in tune myself even when I can hear that I am flat or sharp, etc. That’s probably how I came across your blog in the first place because I have an insatiable desire to learn how people do things and went off looking for articles on her that might provide some insight into how she was doing what seemed at face value, something that just wasn’t possible and I’m always fascinated by people’s ability to problem solve such challenges. The fact that she happens to be deaf was just tangential to me.
That’s where I think hearing people do NOT get it since if you’re not a professional singer or musician you just don’t know what exactly is involved in doing it well….particularly since so many people see themselves as a “decent” singer when they are actually miles away from someone that can do it for a living. Since most hearing people can sing to some degree, they just don’t give great singers the same credit they might give to for instance, a virtuoso piano player, considering it mainly a “god given talent” and not so much something you really have to work at to be really good. I would guess most deaf people don’t have that same bias of singing as something that is “not all that hard” and would understand the work involved for Mandy to be able to succeed at it without needing a nuanced understanding of music.
So this does tend to bring up the question that a lot of us struggle with on this… that of where does “inspiration” cross into “inspiration porn”? There are definitely moments watching the show that I do cringe a bit feeling like they are putting too much emphasis on the loss of her hearing and her struggles during that time in her life to just move forward vs just focusing on her singing, and what she has needed to do to be able to sing properly. Because that’s some really interesting stuff that people didn’t get to hear much about.
So yeah, I don’t think you are at all wrong to be uncomfortable with her appearance on the show because I think it’s inevitable for a story like hers to have a degree of “look at how amazing she is to overcome being deaf” in there. She certainly hasn’t been the only one by a long shot that they push the “inspirational story” by any means, this season ended up with what seemed like a long list of “overcoming the odds” stories in the finals, from the pre-teen singer whose father died from cancer during the show run, another singer being the sole survivor of a plane crash that was horribly burned, the girl that got into ventriloquism because of how shy she was, the dog trainer living out of her SUV and whose family rejected her career choice, and so on. It seems to be built into the fabric of these kinds of shows to push a “poor me” kind of narrative for as many people as they can, so I expect it’s a hard decision to decide whether to do a show like this knowing they are going to portray you as the “inspirational deaf girl” or forego the exposure and likely big career boost you might get from it. It’s sad that people would have to make that decision though, and not just be able to go on a talent show and have it be about the talent. Such discussions though can make those of us that watch these shows be more on the alert for those kinds of narratives and call them out for it when it gets overly “porny”.
Well sorry this went really long again, like I said, I do tend to ramble on, but I do thank you for giving me a kick in the butt if I was being obtuse and missing the whole point. Maybe I still am… but I’d like to think your post has given me a lot to think about and to be more perceptive to some of these issues in the media.
Honestly, you make a valid point. Mandy was alright, but her voice was just average and she’s not as great as everyone made her out to be. She only got praised, because she was deaf. If she could hear, she would’ve been eliminated before the live shows. She may be only partially deaf, because she answers very quickly, even if it’s at a minimum. Her songs are good, but I think she very, very overrated.