thambos:

Does anyone know what’s “proper” or culturally correct regarding when anyone with a name sign in ASL transitions? Does their name sign change? Can they change it if they are not Deaf? Does it only need to change if its gendered, or if their first initial is a part of it?

I don’t know enough about name sign customs and rules in general but this has been bugging me for awhile, especially since I’ve started to learn ASL.

There’s not really a lot of information about this sort of thing. I know several Deaf people who changed their name sign before/after transitioning. I also changed my name sign because I stopped using my birth name as well so it didn’t make sense to keep the same name sign. I later on went back to my birth name but modified my new name sign and kept it. I’m thinking if one is not Deaf, they cannot change their name sign but they can talk to their friends about getting a new name sign that matches their new name/ gender identity, etc. But if they’re Deaf, they should be able to do this. However, there are some people who also think Deaf people shouldn’t give themselves name signs and its something that should be given to you but I think when it comes to something like this, it becomes such a personal thing.

If the name sign isn’t initialized or gendered (name by forehead can often be thought to be more common for boys, for example), one might not feel the need to change their name sign but I think often people need some distance from the name they used while growing up (whether it’s a birth name or a name sign)… so one might still want to change their name sign. It really depends.

I would really love if there was some research & in depth discussions about name sign changes when it comes to people within the queer/trans* community. 

My issue about the whole ASL songs fad that is happening lately is that 80% of the songs are being signed by people who are learning ASL, thus not fluent in ASL. Yet they get all the publicity and attention while fluent Deaf ASL signers get almost no attention. It’s kinda a whole “WOW, look at that hearing person making songs ~accessible~ for deaf people, how cool of them!” thing… and so many people get super defensive when Deaf people point out that a lot of the signing doesn’t really make sense. Grammar & non-manual markers are off. Vocabulary is signed wrong. People dance & move way too much while signing, making it difficult to see the signing clearly etc. Some of the stuff out there makes no sense at all and yet they get countless comments of praise. ASL songs are almost not even for Deaf people but for hearing people to feel good about themselves and see how ~pretty~ signing is even though they have no idea whether it is spot on or not.

Not to say I don’t like ASL songs. I enjoy the really well done ones and think it’s a cool way to be creative. But it’s frustrating how people get so much attention for something that isn’t done properly. It’s also frustrating when Deaf people critique, it is seen as rude/unwanted. How else will people even improve if we can’t critique them? 

I’m reading The Book of Name Signs right now. So fascinating but also a little bit distressing. According to this, there is no Z (initialized) name signs. The reasoning makes sense - with ANS you repeat the movement twice (such as tapping S handshape on your chest twice) and with the letter Z, it is being traced and therefore, awkward to repeat twice.

I’ve heard that DNS are more traditional, but in this book (although I am not finished reading) it seems that ANS is more commonly used in America and more accepted than DNS name signs. What I’ve seen during my entire childhood were not ANS or DNS but a combination of both, which seems to be unacceptable. But so many people I’ve know has had an initialized name sign with a reasoning behind it. It might fit the rules of ANS where it’s repeated twice in an acceptable location, but yet it also has a reasoning behind it. Everyone I know usually tells what their name sign is and the reasoning behind it (and yes they’re Deaf). I’m wondering if the rules in Canada are slightly different from what exists in the States?

If an Z name sign is unacceptable… I could use my middle name or last name but I have no sense of association with either letters. I’m such a Z person! I could go the DNS route… but not really sure what would work. Also, I find nothing about a Deaf person assigning themselves a name sign. I think it’s probably unacceptable but there’s just no information about that type of situation. But I know that there are situations where some Deaf people have assigned themselves a name sign (myself as well) and it’s usually related to being queer & a gender thing (changing actual birth name to another, thus often also changing name signs). I feel like in these situations, it should be acceptable but there’s just absoultely no information out there about this.

As a child my name sign was a Z traced on my chest (think superman - given by my hearing mom) and then later it was just fingerspelled for a long time because I was uncomfortable with my chest - gender stuff. Then I changed my name (and name sign) to Zory and it was a Z being traced away from beside my right eye and turning into a Y at the end. I eventually went back to my birth name, Zoée but kept the Z part of my name sign (ditched the Y ending).

The Deaf community over here doesn’t seem to care about my changed name. Some still remember me as Z on chest but then change it as soon as they realize it’s now by my eye. Interesting though to realize that Z name signs are not even acceptable in the first place. I might just go back to just having my name fingerspelled.

I also am thinking about all these initialized name signs I assigned to friends that didn’t properly fit the ANS system.

Any good Name Signs resources out there? I’m curious to see what people are thinking nowadays… The book came out in 1992, that’s quite a while. Probably why he didn’t mention how it seems that some Deaf people are trying to return to the traditional name signs (DNS).

Also, your thoughts?

swimming-under-water:

I found this video whilst researching the persecution of deaf people during the Holocaust for a project I did in College last year (the project ended up being a novelette I wrote.) I think this woman’s story is fascinating beyond belief, and that she survived such an ordeal is a testament to her will.

(Note: the video I first posted didn’t work, and I can’t find an embed link for the video, so the link must suffice. I highly recommend watching it though.)

I now know what I’ll be watching later tonight!

Video is captioned.

ewitty:

Eyes Wide Open
Aubrecht
May 2012

… “Kind of like the person who decides to wear earplugs for a whole day with the goal of empathizing with groups of people who experience oppression because they don’t hear. You know, underneath that distress and frustration—even the fleeting moments of outrage, there’s still that knowledge that they can take those earplugs out, anytime. And maybe this is what allows people to hang on to the illusion that the problem really does lie in the hearing loss rather than social construct.” … 

[FE: Butterfly Effect]

Just made a photoshop version of (keep in mind: very simplified) the chart that Elle and Emma have been working on with a few small changes. What do you think Elle & Emma?