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Deaf Politics:
See, Hear, Speak No Deaf

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See, Hear, Speak No Deaf 30 inch by 40 inch oil on stretched canvas $900 click on image.

Description about the painting:
This painting is about Audism and what is happening today in the early hearing detection research industries.
I use the theory of 'three wise monkeys' with 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil', and change that into Audism in the Deaf world.

See No Deaf, Deaf people see AUDISM over and over again. It is about the Deaf people who have been oppressed over and over again with no respect and this is what they see all the time. The hands cover the eyes, but left one eye open, because the Deaf must see everything.

Hear No Deaf, AGBELL says “forget that you are deaf.” FIX FIX FIX FIX, LISTEN LISTEN, genetic engineering to eradicate Deaf people. It is about genetic engineering, cochlear implants, and so on, where the professionals want the deaf to hear (with the small ‘d’, refers to medical term. “Fix, fix, fix” is the message that the Deaf use, meaning to fix and turn a body into a 'hearing' person. Alexander Graham Bell even mentioned, "We should try ourselves to forget that they are deaf. We should teach them to forget that they are deaf." DNA structure is part of the genetic engineering as researchers are trying to find ways to make deaf babies become hearing. Listen, Listen is to train a Deaf child to hear.

Speak No Deaf, Professionals say no ASL to Deaf children It is about oralism where Deaf people only speak and listen and the medical professionals say 'NO American Sign Language' to deaf children.
They tell new parents of deaf children, not to teach a deaf child sign language. The hands are tied with blue tape wrapped around. The blue tape in the Deaf community is a symbol of forbidden, cannot do, stop, enough is enough, and so on. The hands are 'cuffed', 'tied' to meaning they are not allowed to use sign language and that they must learn how to speak.

Every newborn child has been screened for hearing test and when a test fails, medical professionals give very little information to new parents about other alternatives on how to raise a happy Deaf child, in learning about the Deaf culture, Deaf history, Deaf education and the beauty of sign language.

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Nancy Rourke all paintings are copyrighted. 2001-2020
Last updated October 28, 2020