Melanie Page

*This post was originally published at Grab the Lapels.

Women and Deafness: Double Visions was edited by Brenda Jo Brueggemann and Susan Burch. The book is broken into three sections: community work, authority in schools and motherhood, and cultural manifestation (creativity). Each section has essays authored by different people, and each easy includes a works cited page, so this book feels more academic in nature. However, it is readable, and even enjoyable.

Because it is the end of the semester, I was not able to finish the whole of Women and Deafness; however, I read enough to share some information with you. In the essay “Female Matters: Female Dynamics within Deaf Schools,” Jessica Lee explains the gendered was in which deaf boys and girls were taught (your basic scholarly/trades for boys and mothering/housekeeping for girls). Yes, this was same with hearing children, but the marked gender differences continued for decades after a shift in the hearing community. One passaged I highlighted emphasized not only the differences in what boys and girls should do upon adulthood, but how educators thought boys’ and girls’ brains needed to be taught differently:

When a board member of the school quizzed the pupils, he asked a young boy to “give a sketch of Alfred the Great, his reforms, laws, etc., and contrast the condition of the country on his succession, with the condition at this death.” More questions followed. “How did the science of chemistry originate?” He then asked a female student, “Could you have had your choice, at what period of the early time in America would have preferred to live, and why?” He followed up: “Which is your favorite flower and why?”

The essay emphasizes the rigorous academic nature of what the boys learned versus the delicate and emotional content for girls.

In another essay called “Was Helen Keller Deaf? Blindness, Deafness, and Multiple Identities,” author Kim. E. Nielsen explains why we think of Keller as the blind woman instead of the deaf-blind woman. Part of the essay reveals Keller’s relationship with Alexander Graham Bell, about whom I’ve written before. Overall, Nielsen’s essay looks at the different identities Keller embodied and how dismissing some of her identities (woman, deaf) in favor of others (blind) changes how we think about this famous historical figure. Consider how Keller grew into a woman but was never seen as a sexual being nor a mother because she was viewed as disabled.

Lastly, Sara Robinson authored the article “The Extended Family: Deaf Women in Organizations.” For Deaf people, clubs and organizations were a “family,” often in lieu of their blood families that could not sign (90% of deaf children have hearing parents). However, much like mainstream America, organizations typically refused women, non-Christians, and people of color membership. Instead, local clubs were organized by women, who made events special, and the community noted that women added a nice touch to events to make them look pleasing and the food taste good, too. Therefore, membership increased.

In addition, Deaf women organized social services. For example, the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf later, in 1902, established the “Home for the Aged and Infirm Deaf.” On paper, men ran things, but women actually kept the operation going, including financially, nutritionally, socially, and with maintenance upkeep. Because Deaf people could not communicate unless they were face to face, social events were not only fun, but combatted isolation.