KS,
I have a deaf second cousin and I have a blind first cousin once removed. I had an employee that was an institutionalized, handicapped young adult. And I've had classmates with various disabilities. I'm no stranger to these realities.
Let me make this very clear... I NEVER SAID THAT THE DEAF COULD NOT READ OR ARE IN ANY WAY IGNORANT. Where you're coming at me with that argument is beyond me.
Quite the contrary. My argument is that THE DEAF CAN SPELL. There is no good reason for WT to use such suggestive gestures for both male and female masturbation repeatedly in that video. English WT publications use the least descriptive term for the action (English has far more desciptive terms for jacking off than "masturbation"), yet ASL chooses the most graphic gesture and expresses it for both genders. WT has made this content available to everyone on the Internet. In that very page that you pointed me to, Lady Lee said:
"I just know that as an interpreter I would have signed the word. And while the adults understood then they could explain it later to their children in a manner appropriate to their age."
I understood that to mean that she would have spelled the word rather than make the gesture that she was stroking the male genitals or rubbing the female genitals. On page 1 of the thread, Lady Lee said:
"as an ex-interpreter I find that disgusting."
I think you are the one that needs to reread Lady Lee's posts. Over and over, she expressed that she is not comfortable with those signs of male and female masturbation in front of an audience. That's the point I'm questioning. Yes, I understand that Iamallcool and jeanpicard said that those were the signs, but is that the only option for PUBLIC performance. Neither one stated that they would sign exactly like that in front of a congregation. Jeanp said that he finds it amusing:
"I still find these videos amussing, but who wouldn't?"
Okay, so why should I get condemned if I find this WT video amusing? Who am I supposed to apologize to? Jeanp is laughing too! He continues:
"If you really want to see a creepy one, watch the Chapter on molestation on the Learn from the Great Teacher DVD. But, keep in mind that there really is no better way to sign it."
Okay, maybe there's no better way to say it in the American vernacular than "jack off", yet WT still uses "masturbation" in their printed publications. Maybe there's "no better way to sign it" in ASL, but aren't there otherways to sign it that are less "amusing"? I've already stated that access to the sign on other ASL websites was blocked as adult content. The kid on YouTube said that it was a "dirty word". Elsewhere, I already pointed out that the lady signing in ASL on YouTube discusses the subject without the WT style of graphic masturbation gestures. She's deaf, yet discusses masturbation without anything like this:
And I already pointed out that on most of the other Sign Languages on jw.org website varied from noticable that it was masturbation, to Russian where you couldn't tell the word was even used. Seriously, check it out. Then come back and compare it to ASL. It's as if WT was begging for this to go viral on YouTube. None of the other Sign Languages did the lingering strokes and facial expressions that the ASL guy did. In the time he took to sign "I'm jacking my penis, now this is a vagina and this is where you rub it and the face you make while doing it", he could have spelled "masturbation".
And if you listen to the English MP3 recording, John Miller is reading it as if he was reading my dry, boring thermodynamics textbook. He doesn't put the drama in as if he was actually jacking off while he read it. He certainly could have. He's been used for many drama voices. I wish he would have, it would have gotten the meaning of the text so much clearer... and it would have been hilarious. If other languages would have laughed at how John read the appendix about masturbation as if he were having an orgasm, I wouldn't take it as insulting to my language.
Which reminds me, I need to go finish my thermodynamics homework.
But I still think that a deaf person would be able to understand that the subject was masturbation without the signer repeatedly and graphically portrayed both male and female genital stimulation while making an orgasm face. Like I said, I don't think that the deaf are at all stupid.