Brief disclaimer

This is the first of a multi-part article series based on a paper I originally wrote for a University rhetoric course. I broke it into sections and made edits to make it easier to read, so I hope you enjoy.

(Also, please note, although Medium estimates this to be a 10-minute read, it's really more of a 5–7 minute read if you don't count the reference section).

Linguistic exploitation

In the summer of 2022, a teenager named Lola posted a video of herself signing a song on TikTok. As someone who is hard of hearing, fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), and involved in the Deaf community, I can objectively say the interpretation is terrible.

It's awkward and choppy, it doesn't convey the attitude or tone of the song, and some of the lyrics or concepts are signed incorrectly. The sign for "hot" is mistakenly signed in place of the phrase "don't care", the sign for "apple" is used instead of "cool", and the sign "cry" is signed with incorrect finger position. The actual lyrics are "Stop telling me what I should wear! Yes, I just woke up, and I don't care because I'm too cool (that's a lie)". The message conveyed in ASL amounts to approximately, "stop saying what I wear, yes I woke up, I'm hot. I'm apple, this lie", and the final line is actual gibberish.

This content creator was (and still is) very young and has only begun to learn ASL, which in itself is a wonderful thing. Anyone who wants to should be welcome to learn one of the many signed languages used around the world. They are beautiful languages, and more people being able to communicate this way increases accessibility for the Deaf community. At least, in theory.

Influencers with large followings teaching inaccurate signs cause harm. These content creators take up space which does not belong to them, thus depriving actual Deaf people and sign language experts of potential opportunities to authentically share our culture and language.

Teaching signs incorrectly could also place Deaf people at risk. If there were an emergency situation and someone who had learned signs from a non-expert were trying to communicate with a Deaf person, they could give them unhelpful or even dangerous information.

The video I mentioned at the outset earned just over six thousand views and only three comments (all of which were positive), so initially it may have seemed as though no real harm was done. About seven weeks later, Lola posted her first video in what would become an extremely popular series for her, called "Sign of the Day". That particular video garnered over 147 thousand views and eleven comments, many of which were asking questions about signs, all which Lola did not answer — presumably because she didn't know.

That November, a mere three months after uploading her inaugural post, Lola shared her first unboxing video having landed a brand deal, after which the flood gates seemed to open. More brand deals and unboxing videos were shared, and some of Lola's videos surpassed one million views. She continued to post videos of herself signing songs and teaching signs, many of which had errors, meaning she was teaching the signs incorrectly to hundreds of thousands of followers.

Her feed is then filled with increasing numbers of beauty tips, unboxing videos, and what are essentially commercials for various companies with hashtags such as #microinfluencer, #branddeal, and #partner. Lola's TikTok account includes videos bragging about how much she receives in a week for being an influencer, showing off products she has been sent from various companies for her to promote on her channel.

All of these financial and material gains were accumulated as a direct result of appropriating, exploiting, and misusing ASL — a language she clearly does not know well.

DARVO

In March 2023, Lola posted a video in response to concerns expressed by the Deaf community. Deaf people have long been asking Lola to stop teaching sign language because she is showing her followers many incorrect signs and causing harm. This influencer is misrepresenting a language that is not hers while amassing followers, free gifts from companies, and whatever income she earns from her brand deals and from TikTok.

The cheeky response video was Lola's attempt at giving "side-eye" to the Deaf community, which ironically, she also signed incorrectly. The caption on the video summarized the message Lola claimed to be receiving from the Deaf community, which read "stop learning sign language".

Many comments clarified that learning sign language is wonderful and should be open to anyone, but the real issue is co-opting a language that isn't hers while teaching her many followers incorrect signs.

Rather than listen to and respect the wishes of the Deaf community, Lola downplayed the harm she was causing and presented herself as the victim, professing to her loyal followers that Deaf people said she shouldn't learn sign language. Despite Lola's assertions to the contrary, the message had been made abundantly clear: Learn, don't teach.

In early April 2023, Lola signed the national anthem at a local baseball game in her town. According to The Daily Moth, a Deaf-run website which produces news videos in ASL, she and her mother had reached out to the organizers and asked if Lola could do this.

Lola's rendition of the national anthem was amateurish, poorly done, and a brazen slap in the face to the Deaf community. Not only did Lola double-down on her exploitation of ASL, she took it even further and used the hashtag #SignLanguageInterpreter, which she most certainly is not.

Accessibility and language deprivation

Sign language interpreters spend many years learning ASL and developing the skills to translate from spoken language to signed communication. Interpreters play an important role in providing accessibility to the Deaf community. To step into the position of interpreter when wholly unqualified not only interfered with accessibility for any Deaf fans who were at the ball game, doing this made a mockery out of the very language and culture much of the Deaf community holds dear.

The Deaf community has a long and painful history of language suppression and deprivation. The damage done by audism and oralism continues to impact the Deaf community to this day.

As of this writing Lola is still posting ASL videos. Instead of calling them "sign of the day", she now signs "today I learned", and adds "not a teacher" in brackets at the end of her video descriptions. She continues to receive thousands of views, and based on her videos, a lot of brand deals and gifts from companies.

Lola has effectively ignored the Deaf community's concerns, continued teaching signs poorly, and continued to profit from her appropriation and exploitation of ASL.

I focused on this particular case because of the significant attention it has received over the past two years, and because it is ongoing. However, Lola is most certainly not alone. There are many similar cases involving hearing people appropriating sign language for personal gain.

There have even been cases of people pretending to be professional interpreters for significant events, such as the memorial honouring Nelson Mandela, and a televised police press conference.

I've summarized here what I think are the main issues regarding language appropriation, in particular of the exploitation of ASL by hearing social media influencers. What I seek to understand in my coming articles is why they do this and what we can do about it.

© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB

Part two

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