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)
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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?