“Here in Two Beach” or Why does this not sound empowering? Revisiting Nelle Morton without Hearing Aids

In this short paper I rehearse through the ears of one with a hearing impairment Nelle Morton’s famous feminist theological method of ‘hearing into speech’ that she articulated in The Journey is Home (1985). I seek to uncover the tacit assumption of universal access to oral-aural communication which Morton herself and most of her many adopters have overlooked. While I recognise the therapeutic and political potential of collective lament and consciousness raising, I offer my own experience of exclusion from this process as a starting point to critique what has become a 'sacred cow' in feminist theology. This critique will be aided by literature in disability studies in order to present the development of communicative practices and identities of hearing-impaired persons as characterised by ‘dissociation’ (Carol Gilligan, 1997). The resultant survival strategies exclude the hearing impaired person from participation in oral-aural communication, including Morton’s ‘hearing into speech’. Thus, I argue for the importance of informed intersectionality as a safeguard against unintentional exclusion and for ‘widening participation’ measures that enable right relationships before all can benefit from Morton's proposal for empowerment.