Naked Sign Language

Our post this week is supposed to be an article posted on our professors blog. so here it is:


After reading both my professor posting and this article it seems that the main point of this program is to give the news to deaf people. However, my question is why do they feel the need to have the newscaster strip naked in front of the camera? To me it seems more likely a strategy that cares more about the ratings then if deaf people get the news or not.

My professor mentioned that this could be a good way to get people interested in Japanese sign language or deaf cultural in general, however I wounder if this is true. I think that it would attract a large number of people, however I don't think any of them are paying attention to her hands or even the Japanese writing that sometimes accompanies the hand signs (in case someone might actually try to learn something). At the end of the day most viewers are only there for their daily does of free porn and most likely go away without learning anything. Or maybe the next day it will be the joke around the water cooler, "hey did you see the Japanese sign language news last night?" "Yea, I sure did learn something."

The whole of idea of a naked sign language programme to me seems to cheapen and even in some ways insulting to deaf people. It me it almost seems to say, "here is the only way to make deaf people interesting." I find that disappointing.