Funferal

Sign language and stereotypes

Channel 4 programme Vee-TV, which serves the deaf community in Britain has “decided to alter sign language for the deaf to exclude offensive gestures for homosexuals, ethnic or racial minorities.” Among the signs are those indicating a Jewish person (one based on a ‘stereotypical Jewish nose’ now replaced by one linked to the shape of a menorah), a gay person (a limp wrist is to be replaced by “an upright thumb on one hand in the palm of the other, wobbling from side to side”), and an Indian (“a finger pointing to an imaginary spot in the middle of a forehead”). There appears to be some controversy – similar to complaints about ‘political correctness’ in other spheres – about “discrimination against the culture of deaf people.”
(Thanks to World Wide Words for the initial pointer on this one)