An Analysis of the Media's Perception on the American Sign Language

ASL in the Media

‘Sign Language is not a Performance Art’ is a commentary that focuses on how the media chooses to look at ASL and the Deaf community. The article, written by Caroline Solomon and Jeffrey Archer Miller in early 2014, discusses past popularized events with ASL and how the media handled those situations, clearly showing the demeaning ways the Deaf population was treated. Solomon and Miller, who are both Deaf, were surprised when a competent interpreter received so much attention after Michael Bloomberg’s press conference regarding hurricane Sandy.

The interpreter, Lydia Callis, received praise and recognition from multiple news channels and magazines. Solomon and Miller assumed that this unusual interest in sign language shown by the media would soon pass. However, they were wrong.

The article goes on to list many other occurrences when the media focused on ASL and sometimes put the Deaf community in a bad or degrading light, perhaps unintentionally. All of the claims the authors make are very valid.

The media clearly does not show the Deaf community in a good light, and it continues to reinforce stereotypes that are not kind nor are they true. However, it is the last couple of lines that caught my attention. Towards the end, it simply restates the title, that ASL should not be viewed as a performance area and by doing so the media simply degrades the Deaf community. Perhaps the authors did not quite understand that this could be interpreted in a couple of different ways due to how they stated it.

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The title too is very misleading, because from what I have learned, ASL can most certainly be used as artistic expression and as performance art. indeed, ASL is also a language with just as much grammatical structure and vocabulary as any other spoken one. However, just like eEnglishcan be used for spoken word, ASL can be used for poetry and to perform songs. I know this is probably not what the authors meant. However, the article was aimed at both the hearing and the Deaf population which means they must have wanted to make an impression on those who only understand what the media shows. They wrote this article as a commentary and to stop the ignorance about the Deaf community. By explicitly stating that ASL is not a performance art and that saying so is derogatory only causes more ignorance in those they are trying to educate. Perhaps if the authors had mentioned in the article at least once that ASL can be used as performance art, however, when simply used as a language, that is all it is, perhaps then it would have helped their readers to understand a clearer message. However nowhere did they mention that sign language poetry or the signing of songs is a beautiful art form.?They did not say anything about the difference between the language itself and the way it can be used as performance art, leaving me very confused as to their real message. After rereading the article multiple times, I’m still unsure of whether they are only discussing the language itself and are not discussing ASL poetry, or whether they do not consider any forms of ASL poetry to be performance art.

For the first part of the article, Solomon and Miller mainly discuss the media’s focus on interpreters. These people are simply using ASL as a language, not performance art. This makes the title understandable and helpful to the non-educated reader. However halfway through the article t, the story of a girl named Holly Maniatty is explained. Holly is a professional sign language interpreter, and the authors chose to focus on her sudden popularity after her interpretation of a Wu-Tang performance. While the article strictly considers what Holly did as anas interpretation, I feel differently. After watching Holly’s performance I do think that her signing was an interpretation to help involve the deaf audience too.

However, I also think that what she did should be considered a performing art. She flows with the music and uses the language to express the words, the beat, and the character of the rappers themselves. In an interview Holly did she explained, “It’s important that you’re representing their intent to the music and their intent to the song.” (Maniatty, AOL.on entertainment) While the music itself is not hers, she expresses it in a way that is not only a language but also art. I also took the time to find a rap battle done by Holly on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and I found the same thing. Holly’s interpretations are performances and are incredible to watch. By including Holly’s story in the article, the authors seemed to invalidate the fact that what she does is a type of performing. If the authors had chosen to only discuss occurrences with interpreters for things such as the news, then one might have been able to take away the message that ASL is a language and that they had simply chosen to not talk about how people can use ASL for performing arts if they so choose. However,r by using Holly’s example and discussing both her performance with Wu-Tang and her rap battle on Jimmy Kimmel Live, I took away the message that any sort of performing such as that and signing to songs is not art.

While the rest of the article is a very interesting read and an incredible commentary on how the media portrays the Deaf population, I feel that the authors should have been more clear with their viewpoints and should have included a section that talked about the ways ASL can be used for performance art. The title was very simple and quite easy to understand. However, if the way I interpreted it is not what the authors wanted, then they should have gone slightly onto the topic of sign language as performance art. Or perhaps, they could have included some sort of ddisclaimerexplain that they were only talking about the language itself and not the ways it could be used for artistic expression. Although when including someone like Holly, who is most definitely a performer in my eyes, any disclaimer would simply be regarded as hypocritical because they do imply that what Holly does is not performance art and should be categorized along with interpretations of press conferences.

Works Cited

1. Tabrizy, Maniatty. “HOLLY MANIATTY PERFORMS WITH MUSICIANS IN SIGN LANGUAGE.”.: AOL.on Entertainm, Print. http://on.aol.com/video/holly-maniatty-performs-with-musicians-in-sign-language-517831771
2. Solomon, Caroline, and Jeffrey Archer Miller. “Sign language is not performance art.” Baltimore Sun. N.p., 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 May 2014. <http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-0425/news/bs-ed-media-and-sign-language-20140426_1_american-sign-language-deafamericans-deaf-people>.
3. “Sign Language Rap Battle with Wiz Khalifa.” Kimmel, Jimmy. Jimmy Kimmel Live. ABC. 8 Apr. 2014. Television. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ1btfwMIE