I came am across an interesting article and YouTube video on American Sign Language (ASL). Melissa J. Regas, is a deaf artist. She lives between two different cultures-- the deaf culture and the hearing culture. Melissa explains how ASL has not progressed in the same way society has been progressing in regards to the inequities of class, race and gender. Sign Language dates back to 1620.
Melissa Regas decided to develop a new model of sign language called the : Peoples’ Sign Language (PSL),in which she takes unbiased approach to signs. Her goal is give 21 st century perspective on the way certain words are signed.
In traditional ASL many of the men signs are on the upper part of the face while the women signs are on the lower part of the face that signifies the power of the man, as well as the dominance of the man.
In ASL, continent, countries and culture signs are based upon physical stereotypes . This signs are not geographical in location. For an Example the ASL the sign for China symbolize a military uniform and the physical "oval eye shape" . In the PSL,Melissa wants to diminish stereotypes so the sign would be represented as a map painted upon the body, which signifies their geographical placement. PSL country signs are formulated by finger spelling the first letter or abbreviation of the countries’ name around their geographical location.
“ In PSL, the face is split in half vertically not horizontally. The right side of the face is female signs while the left half is male signs. I made this choice because when the words "female" and "woman" are read across the face, the male/man portion of those words are on the left side of the face. The PSL placements of male and female signs are based upon visual fingerspelling, not social status.”
I can honestly say this is a very unique idea and I have never really thought about how ASL still has stereotypes in the language.
Wow I never thought about how sign language is so gender and racially inclined. Since I don't know sign language I wasn't aware of the signs for men and women and even for the Asian. This women is trying to make sign language "politically correct".
ReplyDeletePeople with disabilities should not be pushed aside. All people should be treated equal.
I think its amazing that someone decided that they were going to do something about the inequalities that they saw in the language.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is still very gender biased. And though some people have taken the step to making new alternatives, most are still not commonplace in our language. Like, gender neutral pronouns (it, one, "singular they", ze & zir (for she/he &his/her), s/he & his/r, etc.)or the "feminist spelling" of womyn. (which was underlined as misspelled in spell check. :/)
Is PSL a commonly taught language?
PLS is not taught at all, it is not a language, it is a concept that Melissa Regas developed. Many ASL user are opposed to any change in the ASL language.
ReplyDelete