"Do What You Have To Do" : Marlee Matlin, the Modern Day Helen Keller

“But I always sign in my books that courage + dreams = success. And I think it's an equation that should be taught in every single institution of learning.”

–Marlee Matlin

Because my most previous blog post focused on making connections to the week’s reading Gender Trouble, by Judith Butler, I neglected to address Helen Keller in reference to Ann George’s piece, “Mr. Burke, Meet Helen Keller”, not only as the representation of a disabled social stigma turned historical inspiration, but the importance of her role in rhetoric. While it is no secret that any “normal” individual would consider a person of blindness or deafness “different”, even treating them as outcasts, Keller proves her worth through her own language, and through her relentless efforts.

In “Mr. Burke, Meet Helen Keller”, George identifies three shared rhetorical strategies that she finds theorist Kenneth Burke and visually and audibly impaired Helen Keller both utilize in their work. George argues that Keller achieved respect as a rhetor through her use of boring from within, translation, and perspective by incongruity (341), each of these elements appealing to audience.

In an attempt to relate to the handicapped struggles that Helen Keller endured, while simultaneously highlighting the successes that she achieved not just as a victim of disability, but as a political activist, author, and “one of America’s most effective goodwill ambassadors” (George, 340), I introduce a modern day female icon who, without intention, would become an inspiration to all deaf women seeking to lead successful lives as normal women would. Immediately, deaf actress Marlee Matlin came to mind. I found it important not just to compare Helen Keller with any famous contemporary feminist, but to recognize a well-known female leader with one of the same disabilities as Keller, deafness, in order to truly correlate their successes. If you are unfamiliar with Matlin, you should know that she is an award-winning American actress who advocates on many levels for people who suffer of various disabilities.

Doubtlessly, Matlin is a rhetor of her own kind, just like Keller. In an interview with NPR, Matlin discusses the ways in which she is constantly overcoming her struggle and attaining the success that any actors without impairments would. She proves her sameness to Keller by use of the three rhetorical strategies.

First, George describes “boring from within” as the method that Burke and Keller both use to relate to their audience, to talk their language, to “express ideas in terms that the audience will understand” (342). In other words, searching within yourself is key to relating to your audience as a rhetor. In the interview, Matlin displays the utmost humility, even as a renowned actress, showing that even she is still a human being like the rest. She comes from a place that anyone could universally relate to, talking about her family, her inspirations, and her honest dilemmas being deaf. Though there are members of the audience who are not deaf, it is easy for them to relate on those levels of humanity that Matlin displays. Unknowingly, Matlin created an “identification” (340) for her audience to relate to that George claims Keller creates in her own rhetoric.

Translation is the second notable rhetorical strategy that George argues of Keller. Translation, according to George in reference to Burke and Keller, is the “shifting of a term’s application” (342) through a sort-of redefinition and reassignment of it. George introduces the example of Keller advocating for socialism by means of positive connotation and optimistic portrayal of the seemingly negative players in socialism. By doing this, Keller sought to replace the normal, assumed ideas associated with socialism. Just so, in the interview, Matlin attempts to reassign the meaning of a deaf person’s way of communicating:

“In the deaf community there are different types of people who have different philosophies. Some believe that they should only sign. Some believe they should only speak. Some people say you should use cued speech. Some say you should use cochlear implants. Some say you shouldn’t sign. Some people say you should sign. Whatever the varying opinions were, I represented something different, and because no one knew me, they decided to make me their scapegoat or whatever it was to express their philosophy.”

By recognizing the dilemmas associated with communicating with a deaf person, Matlin turns the tables to prove that the “standardized ideologies” (341), as George would say, of a topic, do not always represent what is best, just like Keller did in advocating for socialism.

In her last argument, George highlights Keller’s ability to offer new sight, or “perspective by incongruity”, into an average woman’s struggle in comparison to men. In her essay, “Put Your Husband in the Kitchen”, Keller uses a humorous tone to point out the “warped values of machine culture” (George, 343), more specifically how a woman should not be confined to the role of a housewife. Host of Matlin’s interview, Michel Martin, asks what else Matlin would like to do in her lifetime. She responds:

“There's a lot. I would love to do a talk show. Naturally, I would love to do more films. I'd love to be able to see casting directors more willing to put in a character who happens to be deaf. I'm not talking about doing deaf storylines, but putting in deaf characters. I'd love to be able to do Broadway. I'd love to find challenging roles like that. There's still a lot to do. I mean, you know what, maybe I could work at a radio station. Who knows, the first deaf lady on the radio.”

Along with the countless sarcastic jokes at her own deaf expense, Matlin proves she is limitless. By asserting that she dreams to be a talk show hostess even though she is deaf brings the audience into a new perspective. A deaf talk show hostess? How is that even possible? Like Keller, Matlin sets out to defy the norms.

-Samantha Stamps

Click on the link below to hear the podcast of the radio interview, as well as view the transcript.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129130484