(disclaimer: I don't have fibromyalgia, nor am I deaf. I have friends who are, though, and so I'm drawing on what I know.)
Other than the first example you gave ("It won't hurt to..."), I agree. I actually didn't know it *was* expected to do that.
With the first one, though, it could *very* easily show your privilege if it was aimed towards the person in question ("Oh, c'mon, it wouldn't hurt for you to try this."). Not having chronic pain means not having to worry about that sort of thing, and it comes across as "Well, everyone *else* can do this; why won't you?" without realising that something *might* hurt for them.
It's different if you're aiming it towards yourself, of course - "I guess it couldn't hurt for me to try." In that case I agree; don't stop yourself from saying it because it contains the word 'hurt'.
As for the third, while I agree that, as stated, it's fine to talk about the concert you found, it's probably subject to a few caveats. I think it's possible that a lot of deaf people would probably get sick of the assumption that they can hear (another function of privilege), and as such, somebody might be on the edge if you start talking about a new artist, for example. So unless they knew me well, I probably wouldn't talk about it.
Of course, it differs based on the mode of communication. If you're signing to someone in real life, it's a lot more obvious that you *know* they can't hear, so I probably wouldn't have any qualms in signing it. It's in text-based modes of communication - text messages, IM, IRC, etc - that would be worse, since text has a way of making these things disappear, which can be both a blessing and a curse. (To anybody who feels differently - please let me know, as I'm not deaf and thus can't know this for sure.)
What do you think? Is *my* privilege showing here? (Hey, I make mistakes.)
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Date: 2009-09-25 08:07 am (UTC)Other than the first example you gave ("It won't hurt to..."), I agree. I actually didn't know it *was* expected to do that.
With the first one, though, it could *very* easily show your privilege if it was aimed towards the person in question ("Oh, c'mon, it wouldn't hurt for you to try this."). Not having chronic pain means not having to worry about that sort of thing, and it comes across as "Well, everyone *else* can do this; why won't you?" without realising that something *might* hurt for them.
It's different if you're aiming it towards yourself, of course - "I guess it couldn't hurt for me to try." In that case I agree; don't stop yourself from saying it because it contains the word 'hurt'.
As for the third, while I agree that, as stated, it's fine to talk about the concert you found, it's probably subject to a few caveats. I think it's possible that a lot of deaf people would probably get sick of the assumption that they can hear (another function of privilege), and as such, somebody might be on the edge if you start talking about a new artist, for example. So unless they knew me well, I probably wouldn't talk about it.
Of course, it differs based on the mode of communication. If you're signing to someone in real life, it's a lot more obvious that you *know* they can't hear, so I probably wouldn't have any qualms in signing it. It's in text-based modes of communication - text messages, IM, IRC, etc - that would be worse, since text has a way of making these things disappear, which can be both a blessing and a curse. (To anybody who feels differently - please let me know, as I'm not deaf and thus can't know this for sure.)
What do you think? Is *my* privilege showing here? (Hey, I make mistakes.)