Switched at Birth

I'm thrilled to announce Guest Blogger, Sarika D. Mehta! Her first post, on Switched at Birth, explores the portrayal of the Deaf Community and Deaf Culture. Sarika obtained her Master's in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focused on the education rights of Deaf children as English Language Learners. She currently resides in Portland, Oregaon, and is a producer for KBOO Community Radio. Welcome, Sarika!
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Special thanks to Dr. Casey George-Jackson for inviting me to throw some thoughts on her great blog!

I’ve come to have a new appreciation for ABC Family (really, we should call it ABC Unfortunate Teenager). Now, before you write me off completely (and I couldn’t blame you), you should know that I’m a gigantic fan of the Harry Potter series and they tend to show these movie marathons say, every weekend. You should also know that I’ve been involved with the Deaf* Community for a long time and I’m about to return to school to take on a Sign Language Interpreting Certification program. That being said, I was very curious about the new teen drama, Switched at Birth. You can view the pilot here:





So first off, oh my god - a Hard of Hearing girl plays the lead!! How awesome! And furthermore, an awesome Deaf actor plays her bff!! But more on that later....

This show is about two teenage girls who were, well, switched at birth. The two families involved took home each others’ babies and never knew until a high school science class lesson talking about hereditary traits. As if the prospect of two daughters being raised by not their biological parents was not enough, they also threw in the fact that one family is ridiculously wealthy (including Lea Thompson playing the mother!) and raising the “rebellious, artistic teenager”, Bay Kennish (played by Vanessa Marano). The wealthy family also has a younger son, Toby, and both children attend what appears to be a rather snooty, over-privileged private school. The father was a baseball star and now owns a chain of car washes, while the mother is a stay-at-home mom who seems preoccupied with organizing charity events and the opinions of other people.

Meanwhile the other family is a single mother who lives with her own mother, raising her (not) daughter, Daphne Vasquez, in a presumably rough neighborhood. The single mother character (portrayed by Constance Marie) is half Puerto Rican, works as a hairdresser, and apparently had a drinking problem in the past. Her (not) daughter was deafened as a toddler due to meningitis and I won’t give more plot away. Her mother signs while she speaks English and there’s been reference to her knowledge of Spanish as well. Daphne/Bay’s father is not in the picture - which is another story arc that led to some craziness. As I excitedly mentioned before, the actress who plays Daphne, Katie Leclerc, is Hard of Hearing and appears to be an up and coming star in the world of Deaf performers!

So now that you’re caught up to speed (i.e. everything that happened in the pilot episode), I should give some commentary. One disclaimer: I’m only going to focus my opinions on the issue of Deafness in this show - I know there are several issues and plot lines, but I’m only going to focus on this one.

I’m surprisingly impressed by this show! Now admittedly, I kept my standards rather low given it is ABC Family, especially after Outsourced came out on NBC (check out our podcast discussing the role of Asian and Pacific Americans in pop culture!). However, this show has done a decent job of exploring the complex life of most teens in America and especially a Deaf teen: Her mother, Regina, is hearing, but chose to raise and empower her Daphne with Deaf Culture, American Sign Language and Deaf Education. Regina’s best friend, Melody (played by Oscar-winning, Marlee Matlin), is Deaf, as is her son, Emmett (played by Deaf actor, Sean Berdy), who happens to also be Daphne’s best friend. When Daphne and Emmett communicate, they communicate in American Sign Language. She’ll “interpret” for Hearing people as necessary. It’s very exciting to see Daphne’s character as the lead, with a complex identity and difficulty in forming a relationship with Bay, the other switched daughter.

In only the first several episodes of the show, they’ve already talked about issues concerning Deaf and Hearing people dating, Deaf musicians, hearing aids, cochlear implants versus Deaf Culture and American Sign Language, the dependence of lipreading, and the role of interpreters and the act of interpreting. They’ve also managed to weave issues of ethnic identity in a classist society. They subtitle portions of signing, even if the signing is on top of the speech. Of course they have to thrown in a fair share of teen drama so that everyone else will like it, too.

I will say that the miraculous ability for the Deaf characters to understand 100% of the lipreading is a bit ridiculous and feeding into an unfortunate myth that Hearing people have. Lipreading is an art, not a skill, and oftentimes involves a lot of gap-filling and assumptions, so there is much room for error.

Yes, the show could do a lot better, but considering it’s ABC Family and only the first season, I’m actually pretty pleased with it. I am curious what the Deaf Community thinks as well as the Hearing Community. Check out the clips and weigh in with your own thoughts!

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* Deaf (capital D) refers to a cultural perspective, appreciating "Deaf" as a cultural-linguistic minority, whereas deaf (lower-case d) refers to pathology, the inability to hear.

Slam Dunk

I usually get a kick out of Geico's recent strand of commercials...it take two to tango, living under a rock, and how much wood can a woodchuck chuck. Their latest commercial shows a white, suburban, middle-class couple complaining about how expensive it is to save for their son's college fund. Their solution? To teach the five year old how to dunk a basketball. "Scholarship!" exclaims the mom.

Some might still find humor in the commercial and the scenario it depicts, especially when the wife cues the husband to help their son down from the net. But what if the family was African American? How many times have we heard criticisms of African American families who orient their children toward athletics and not academics, in hopes of a college athletic scholarship- as if playing ball is the only way to make it to college? And while college costs continue to rise, the type of family portrayed in the commercial hardly has anything to worry about... especially since the suburban lifestyle that is portrayed almost guarantees access to good schools, a good education, and, let's face it, scholarships out-the-wazoo in the kid's future. So what does this do in terms of framing the discussion around saving for college, preparing young children for college attendance and financing, and for aspirations of youth?

Coming Soon: Larry Crowne

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts star in Larry Crowne, which opens July 1st. Hanks plays a middle-aged man who returns to college after being laid off. Roberts plays his speech teacher at East Valley Community College.

Check out the trailer:



Just from the trailer, the story brings to mind the growing number of non-traditional (aged) college students, individuals returning to college during economic downturns in lieu of working, and the important role community colleges play- a topic that usually doesn't get a lot of air time in Hollywood.

More to follow once it comes out!

Ball of Fire (1941)

Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper shine in the 1941 classic, Ball of Fire. Co-written by Billy Wilder, of the Some Like It Hot-fame, Cooper plays college professor Bertram Potts, who lives with seven other professors, conducting research for the Totten Foundation. The professors are charged with a 12-year project of writing an encyclopedia. Miss Bragg, their housekeeper, is the only woman they allow in, so as not to be distracted from their scholarly pursuits.

One of their regular contacts from the outside is the garbage man. By talking to him, Potts realizes that as a professor of language, he is out of touch with the latest slang. He decides to venture outside of the house- much to the objection of his peers- to gather data from everyday people in order to improve the quality of his research.

His efforts eventually lead him to a nightclub, where he meets Sugarpuss O'Shea, played by Stanwyck. Engaged to a gangster who is wanted for murder, she is trying to keep a low profile and avoid the police. When Potts recruits her to be an informant for his slang study, she invites herself to stay at the Totten Foundation House. She feigns illness to convince Potts and his fellow colleagues to make an exception of their no-girls-allowed rule, and becomes their house guest.

She charms the professors so much that Potts falls in love with her, even though she is really trying to schedule a rendezvous with her fiance. Potts eventually wins her over after a wild goose chase and the gangster is carted off to jail while the nightclub singer and professor live happily ever after ...

From the perspective of someone inside the ivory tower, the degree to which the professors are out of touch, and their strict no-girls rule for producing the best scholarship possible for the encyclopedia make for a good laugh. Being distracted by women, particularly of the likes of Sugarpuss O'Shea, would be most detrimental to the encyclopedia...but Potts is able to make a few sacrifices, all in the name of scholarship, of course.

Here's a clip from the movie: