DeafHope Responds to Derailers PSA Feedback

TRANSCRIPT:

Tara Holcomb, DeafHope’s Empowerment Director is sitting on a gray couch. Her blonde hair is down and she is wearing a black shirt.

“Hi! I’m Tara, one of the EDs with DeafHope. We just released a PSA called “Derailers” and we got feedback that our use of PhotoBooth techniques to distort faces to show different characters actually derailed from the intended message of believing and supporting survivors. An important point came up about how we promoted beauty standards by using distorted faces to show wrong, bad, and derailing statements. While at the end of the video, the PhotoBooth effects were removed to show “nice” faces with proper comments. That appears to reinforce the message that people who look different and who don’t fit into society’s beauty standards are wrong and bad. We seem to be promoting that thinking. The feedback we received was valuable to DeafHope and we took the time to discuss it. We have decided to take down the current PSA and redo it without the PhotoBooth techniques. We really appreciate this opportunity to self-analyze, learn, and process it together. Thank you to everyone who shared those points with us. Going forward, if there are any issues, please know that we are open to feedback. You can contact us at deafhope@deaf-hope.org.”

Black background appears with white text: deafhope@deaf-hope.org.

Tara comes back on. “DeafHope has always been and will continue to work in solidary with survivors and continue to spread our message of supporting and believing survivors. We will continue to work with our communities. Sometimes the learning process can be painful but it’s an important part of our work together.”

For more information on Derailers:

https://wearawhitefeather.wordpress.com/accountability/the-great-derailers/