Is the phrase “falling on deaf ears” disrespectful?

Is the phrase “falling on deaf ears” disrespectful?

Karamo Brown, one of the hosts on Netflix’s Queer Eye, started a good discussion on Twitter last week when he said he thought the phrase, “falling on deaf ears” is inappropriate and seems to be disrespectful to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Look at this.

[@Karamo: “Someone just said to me, “I feel like my message is falling on deaf ears...” and I told them that I felt that “saying” is inappropriate. It seems disrespectful and rude to the deaf & HOH community. She said I was being over sensitive. Thoughts?”]

Karamo has shown himself to be sensitive to the Deaf community, as he has committed himself to captioning his Twitter videos and had helped to speak out about faulty captioning on Netflix shows.

So, what do you think? Do you agree that the phrase, “falling on deaf ears” is inappropriate? Or is he being oversensitive?

There were multiple responses by Deaf people who agreed with Karamo that it was inappropriate.

For me on a personal level, whenever I see that phrase, I always visualize this.

[Skit]

On a serious note, I do agree with Karamo. I do feel annoyed when I see that phrase, “falling on deaf ears.” I’d prefer people to simply say they feel their message is being ignored. They don’t have to mention, “deaf ears.”

https://twitter.com/Karamo/status/1131620527678689280