CHAMELEON VOICES - INTERPRETING FOR DEAF PARENTS

As interpreters for their deaf parents, hearing children are a cultura l link between two often separate worlds: the Deaf and the Hearing. Da ta from a 4 year study of adult hearing children throughout the United States indicate significant differences between hearing daughters and hearing sons. Not only were daughters more likely than sons (regardle ss of birth order or age differences) to interpret for their parents, but daughters were also far more likely to be bilingual: fluent in bot h spoken English and American Sign Language. A similar gender bias has been observed among the general hearing public: women are far more li kely to attend sign language classes and to work as interpreters for t he deaf. This paper explores the social mechanisms and cultural values which determine the gender of the way we communicate with one another . Informants' narratives suggest that sign language and the practice o f interpreting often touched upon a larger pattern of socialization an d status differences between women and men. The discussion then turns to consider how these differences affect the cultural identity of hear ing sons versus hearing daughters. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.