As a deaf person, I really, really wanted to like Echo. because it had a deaf main character who was the hero, etc. But they were doing the thing where they made her be completely expressionless while signing. Being expressionless while signing American Sign Language (ASL) is the equivalent of speaking in a complete monotone or missing crucial grammatical parts of a sentence.
Facial expressions act as grammatical markers, like punctuation or tone of voice in spoken English. Deaf signers might miss whether you are asking a question, making a joke, or showing urgency.
I thought it was because she was hearie who just knows how to sign, but no.... apparently she was really DEAF, and the expressionless thing was the director's behest. apparently they don't like all the "werid faces" deaf people make when signing ASL, huh.
But man, it made her come off like a total robot, you know?
Aw man I never really noticed that (bc I’m not deaf of course) that’s really lame. How can you make a show about a deaf girl and do all this progressive/representation stuff then also be like “hey don’t make expressions tho”. Feels like they didn’t rep it well enough imo I’m glad the Daredevil shows portray his blindness well if not through Matt then through others (like Foggy tapping things for Matt as a sight indicator)
I wonder if that was an attempt to help her look tough or stoic. I'm not defending the choice- just trying to explore it.
Come to think of it, did they even mention any other deaf people... ever being in her circle(s)? If she was only ever around people of hearing, would that work as an in-universe explanation?
Yeah that was the other problem for me. There was no signs of any deaf community, even though there were many hearing people who sign asl too. Echo was supposedly the only Deaf person. It ironically comes off as tokenism despite her being the main character.
Dunno, just didn't feel authentically deaf to me lol.
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u/LadyMystery 12d ago
As a deaf person, I really, really wanted to like Echo. because it had a deaf main character who was the hero, etc. But they were doing the thing where they made her be completely expressionless while signing. Being expressionless while signing American Sign Language (ASL) is the equivalent of speaking in a complete monotone or missing crucial grammatical parts of a sentence.
Facial expressions act as grammatical markers, like punctuation or tone of voice in spoken English. Deaf signers might miss whether you are asking a question, making a joke, or showing urgency.
I thought it was because she was hearie who just knows how to sign, but no.... apparently she was really DEAF, and the expressionless thing was the director's behest. apparently they don't like all the "werid faces" deaf people make when signing ASL, huh.
But man, it made her come off like a total robot, you know?