Content area
Full Text
THE AUTHORS argue that Deafhood (a term coined by Dr. Paddy Ladd) is an open-ended concept with an essentialist core. They describe how deaf people who have attended their Deafhood lectures and workshops have perceived different aspects of the Deafhood concept, and compare the basic tenets of Deafhood and criticisms on Deafhood to theories and criticisms on feminist essentialisms. The authors find that the vagueness and wideness of the Deafhood concept is one of its strengths, though they also find that it is in some respects problematic to combine and unite ontology and liberation theory in one concept. They further suggest that the ontological aspects of Deafhood need to be foregrounded. The question of essentialism inherent in the Deafhood concept is also briefly discussed with regard to hearing people, the use of spoken language, and the use of amplification technology and cochlear implants.
Keywords: Deafhood, essentialism, feminism, ontology, liberation
Deafhood is a concept that aims to disrupt medically oriented and oppressive discourses, by offering a deafconstructed model that grows out of deaf people's own ontologies (i.e., deaf ways of being in the world), emphasizing positive, experience-oriented views of deaf people (Ladd, 2003). 1 After the publication in 2003 of Paddy Ladd's book Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood, the term became a "buzzword" that appeared to touch many deaf people. It was immortalized in tattoos on deaf peoples' arms and feet and commercialized with Deafhood cups, T-shirts, bags, and buttons (see http://shop.gehoerlosen-jugend .de/). The concept has been used in political meetings and activism, and has been an inspiration for yoga (see http ://www deafhoodyoga.com/), plays (see http://wwwdeafhoodmonologues .com/), and a charitable organization, the Deafhood Foundation (http://www .deafhoodfoundation.org/Deafhood/ Home.html). There are (or have been) Deafhood workshops, courses, conferences,2 reading groups, online discussion groups (e.g., http ://www deafhood discourses.com/), and innumerable vlogs (e.g., http://wwwdeafhooddis courses.com/) and blogs.
However, the Deafhood concept is not free from criticism. The present article is based on discussions during Deafhood presentations and workshops during which it became clear that many participants struggled with questions linked to the nature of this concept. Since 2008 we have taught Deafhood, combining lecturing with workshops, to small groups of up to 25 people (with a few exceptions) in Finland (invited by the Finnish Deaf...