When watching this movie, I was quick to make snap judgments especially about Peter and Nita and their decision to not implant Heather. Being from the hearing world, it was hard for me to understand where their arguments were coming from. I had to take a closer look at the Discourses at play and put myself in their shoes, and while that might not change my opinion on the topic (probably because of my own Discourse), it does broaden and blur the lines of this controversial topic.
The first, and most prominent Discourse that I noticed in this movie, was the deaf community. I hadn't known very much about how close the deaf community was before this movie. I don't think that Madison, Wisconsin has a huge deaf community which is why I haven't been exposed to it too much. What I did learn, is how close knit, and almost cult-like it is. They don't define deafness as a disability. The also take everything concerning deafness, very personally. I saw, in this particular documentary, how sensitive and defensive they were. Anyone trying to get a cochlear implant was seen as being ashamed of being deaf, and that they wanted to escape the community. People who were deaf, were proud to be deaf, and wanted to stay in the community. I'm not sure if they felt like this because they were afraid of trying to connect more with the hearing world, or if maybe it was just easier to stay around people who were like you.
Some other Discourses that were shown throughout the documentary included the hearing people with deaf kids, the medial cochlear implant doctors, and the hearing people from deaf families. One difference that I noticed, is that hearing parents with deaf kids were much more on board with getting the implants. Not being a part of the deaf community, they more thought of the benefits of their children, instead of feeling the pressures of the deaf community looking down on them. They didn't feel like they would be disgracing the deaf people by trying to escape the community, they just wanted the best opportunities for their kids. The doctors, being from the hearing world also didn't really understand why people wouldn't implant their kids.
My personal opinion about the Artinian family, is still that they are afraid. I understand the Discourses that they are apart of, and that only strengthens my belief in this. Because both of the parents are deaf, they don't want to be left behind if their kids go join the hearing world. This was really proven to me when, Nita was looking into getting implants herself. If she could have gotten implants, and hearing, then she would have gotten them for Heather too. She was pro-implants until she found out that the surgery wouldn't work on her. When the Grandma called her out on it, she got defensive again and started crying. I think that the parents knew that they were limiting Heathers potential and instead of staying and being around people who would point that out, they moved to a community that they could hide in, and try and convince themselves that they made the right decisions. They were thinking about themselves, and not heather. The world is a different place now than it was when they were little, and life is going to be even harder for heather as a deaf person now than it was before
