KENNEDY, Krista

Special Issue – Disability, 50.3 pages: 184-193

“I Forgot I’m Deaf!”: Passing, Kairotic Space, and the Midcentury Cyborg Woman

Abstract:

Advertisements for hearing aids often tout the “invisible” nature of their product, designed to obscure visible markers of disability. This essay examines mid-century appeals to women hearing-aid wearers, emphasizing the labor of embodied and cognitive passing in kairotic spaces as well as practical rhetorical implications of human/machine integration, both of which continue to apply in contemporary contexts.