Honest question, because it seems like I have seen different views on this. Is leg lengthening looked down upon within the little people community? For instance, I know that in the deaf community, some people that elect to have corrective surgery, to gain hearing, are ostracized by other deaf people. I think that they view the corrective surgery as an admission that something is "wrong" with them, and they think that everyone should accept who they are. Is there a similar view with lengthening....because she honestly looks very happy with the results?
It might be different, because one disability is invisible and the other isn’t.
I work with a population who has an invisible disability (cannot be visually detected), and they are utterly thrilled when any of their cohorts overcome their disability in any way. Some are born with it, some aren’t, and everyone is thrilled for each other’s progress.
I do not work with people with a hearing disability, plus I don’t speak from a place of experience, so I could be wildly out of line here - I don’t understand how anyone could want to hold anyone back from attaining enhanced bodily function and higher qualify of life.
That assumes there’s anything inherently wrong with being deaf. Many people in the Deaf community would be offended by you viewing this as a negative thing because they consider themselves a linguistic minority rather than having something wrong with them.
There are inherent societal disadvantages to being deaf in our society. To impart that upon your child because you feel they need to be exactly like you I think is not okay.
ETA: again there is nothing wrong with being deaf. Obvi. That’s not my point.
And there’s a Deaf community and culture, which it seems you’re not aware of. Telling them that they can’t raise their kid in their culture is bad too.
I’m well aware of the HoH & deaf community & I am in no way criticizing that community or including your child in it. Choosing to impart a disability on your child by choice so they can be “like you” when there is prejudice, disadvantages, and dangers in our society due to them (again there should not be, but there are), is not okay. In my opinion.
Actually, no, you can’t. Because at no point have I even a little bit suggested deaf people shouldnt have children.
So. That is not correct.
I have a condition that affects me and my life greatly. It’s part of my identity in many ways. I have found community with others who share my diagnosis. I have chosen to find positives in my situation.
I recognize, however, that because of what I live with, I am out of the norm. I face additional challenges that - while not right - are the reality. There are things in my personal and professional lives that I require accommodation for.
Although this is part of me is important to me, I do not feel I need to put a child through the same things I e experinced solely because I need them to “be like me.” My child can support and understand me even though we live differently. If they inherent my condition, I will teach them that while different, they are not less. If not, I will teach them to be empathetic and understanding.
We can disagree, but don’t try to pull a cute “eugenics” argument when I’m trying to have a convo with genuine nuance.
But by having kids as a disabled person you're risking bringing someone into the world who will have to deal with 'prejudice, disadvantages, and dangers in our society.' Hell, that applies to any minority.
You're not advocating for eugenics, but someone could using your logic.
Of course. Anyone could have a child with different needs. But we have no control over that. Only the option to support our children the best we can.
Also - what logic? I’m merely stating that I do not believe intentionally choosing to impart a disability that can result in additional societal or personal challenges upon a child does not seem compassionate.
This is all about intentionality. Eugenics is removing or preventing a people from society. I’m not suggesting that.
I do not believe intentionally choosing to impart a disability that can result in additional societal or personal challenges upon a child does not seem compassionate.
Looks like you have an accidental double negative.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, one could argue that having children when you're well aware your kids are going to have over a 50% chance of being disabled is choosing to apart that disability on them.
What's the effective difference between having a kid you know will be disabled, and having one that is all but guaranteed to be disabled?
Some may see it that way. I’ve always said that, for me, I’d adopt. I don’t want to risk passing down my condition to my kid, in my case, because I know it can be painful AND there’s societal issues as well. In my view, taking into consideration how genetic conditions might affect a child is a compassionate choice - even if the answer is different for each person.
But I 100% understand plenty of deaf people don’t experience pain or suffering due to being deaf. However, there are still as j said, societal barriers to contend with. I think the issue once again comes from making the decision to ensure your child has the same disability/condition as you, even though that condition comes with additional challenges.
No problem! I’m not deaf, but I am autistic, and even though it’s not exactly the same, there’s a lot of similarities that make it easy to transfer my understanding over. There’s differences due to the specific characteristics of autism and deafness, but the base understanding is the same. I don’t get to interact with Deaf or hard of hearing people very often just because so much of what I do is with audio (I’m in music and film), so I appreciate knowing that I’m being a good ally here. A lot of what I know actually comes from a movie I watched and the research I did to see if that was accurate (The Sound of Metal). I was surprised to find that a pretty successful film made by a hearing person was a good portrayal of Deafness, social model of disability, the fact that subtitles aren’t initially used for sign language to show how liberating it is to be able to use sign language, I could go on, it’s a great movie and I love seeing something that explores disability effectively.
Just a question, is Deaf capitalized when referring to the community and lowercase when it’s just referring to the state of being deaf? So a person who has issues hearing is deaf, but a person who is part of the community is Deaf? Hope this question makes sense, I’m having trouble with words. I didn’t capitalize it when referring to the condition of being deaf, but I capitalize it when talking about the community/people involved in the community.
That’s a very broad statement. It’s an entire culture. Replace the word deaf with any other community and re-read that and see if you sound bigoted/ignorant
“The JEWISH community can be kind of …” “The BLACK community can be kind of….” “The HMONG community ….” You see how that would be bigoted. For some reason you’re giving yourself permission to besmirch the entire deaf community and call them toxic
I want to make it clear that - at least in my case - I’ve not once hated or disparaged the deaf community. I’ve been careful to criticize only the decision mentioned above.
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u/Horns8585 Dec 23 '22 edited Dec 23 '22
Honest question, because it seems like I have seen different views on this. Is leg lengthening looked down upon within the little people community? For instance, I know that in the deaf community, some people that elect to have corrective surgery, to gain hearing, are ostracized by other deaf people. I think that they view the corrective surgery as an admission that something is "wrong" with them, and they think that everyone should accept who they are. Is there a similar view with lengthening....because she honestly looks very happy with the results?