Introduction
Dorothy Watkins
Appearance
Notable Features
Dot has a noticeable Deaf accent, very expressive facial expressions and a long scar on her right thigh.Personal Style
Dot loves to keep up with current fashion trends. Her dresses are always bright, vibrant colours and often have floral prints. Now that she has moved out of home, she doesn’t have as much money to spend on clothing, so she often alters her clothing to make it more fashionable or to her tastes.Circumstances
Currently
Dot loves her family dearly, but their overbearing nature and rejection of her Deaf identity have led to plenty of disagreements. She would love to run her own business or travel the world, but her family have decided that she would be better finding a man to marry. To try and please them, Dot is pushing herself to be included in the hearing world, but she often feels like she doesn’t fit. She has made some small steps towards her independence, such as moving out of home, but it still feels like her parents control her life.Health & Capabilities
Besides being Deaf, Dot is in very good health. She is not particularly strong, but she is quite fit. She is severely deaf in both ears, though she can hear a little better with her right. It takes a lot of concentration, but she can understand spoken language well enough to get by. While her parents only noticed Dot's deafness when she was six months old, she was likely deaf since birth.Socioeconomics
On the condition that she continues to try and integrate with the hearing community, Dot does receive a small amount of money from her parents, to help pay her rent. Her wage for being a seamstress is fairly low, but it covers all the essentials she needs. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable about money, as she knows she always has her parents to fall back on.Skills & Talents
Drawing – Dot is a talented artist and loves to sketch her observations of the world around herSewing – Dot always did well in sewing in school, and now works as a seamstress
Lip reading – this is a necessity for her to understand spoken language
Sign language – She is fluent in what would now be called British Sign Language (BSL)
Present Relationships
Parents2 sisters
Identity
Hobbies
Dot loves being creative. When she was living at home she learnt how to embroider, but she has very little time for it now that she is working. She enjoys drawing, and keeps a little notebook full of her sketches and ideas. In the past she did enjoy seeing theatre productions in sign language, but now she does also enjoy watching ballet since there is no dialogue.Habits & Routines
Dot works as a junior assistant at an upmarket dressmaker, so she is often busy at work. Every Sunday she goes to church at St Saviours, so she can actually understand the service, but otherwise she tries to involve herself with hearing people. She regularly visits her family, who are currently trying to get her to meet eligible young men.Personality
Dot can be very nervous – she doesn’t like to stand out in a crowd. She is polite and kind, and doesn’t like to upset other people, to the point that she will cause herself discomfort just to make others happy. When she is in the hearing world, she often feels very lonely and isolated, like people don’t understand her experiences. Her family put a lot of pressure on her to follow their expectations, and she has a hard time saying no to them. The pressure can feel unbearable sometimes even though she knows it comes from a place of love. Dot doesn’t like to share her inner feelings with other people, so she often appears to be very happy go lucky even though she worries a lot. She loves to experience new things, she will always pick something new to eat at a restaurant and enjoys meeting new people. Dot has dreams of travelling the world and visiting as many different countries as she can, but she is certain that her family would never support her endeavours. She is a very visual and creative person, with lots of big dreams.Background
History
Dot was born into a comfortably middle class family. Both her older sisters are hearing, so it was a shock for her parents when they discovered Dot’s deafness. They tried taking her to numerous doctors, forcing her to take numerous disgusting medicines and undergo strange procedures, but nothing ‘cured’ her. Her parents were always kind, but they had very high expectations of all their children, and Dot always felt like they pressured her to be the ‘perfect’ child. The family lived in a comfortable house in London, with a maid and cook.As a very young child, Dot and her sisters were cared for by a nanny, but once she was school age, she was sent to the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb on Old Kent Road – a residential school for Deaf children. Here her eyes were opened to the world of signing and Deafness, and she found comfort in living with her peers. For her early schooling, Dot was taught how to both speak and sign. While she could speak better than many of her peers, it took so much effort to lip read and understand spoken English that she much preferred signing.
Dot loved learning, and she desperately wanted to become a teacher. When she was home on weekends, she would teach her younger sister signs that she’d learnt on the playground when they hid from their parents. However, after the Milan Congress in 1880, her dream was cut short. Suddenly the school refused to hire new Deaf teachers, and some of Dot’s current Deaf teachers were replaced by hearing people. She realised her dream would never come to reality, which crushed her soul.
When she finished school, Dot moved back home with her parents. They constantly argued about what would be best for Dot, and after being surround by Deaf people so much, she felt completely isolated back in her childhood home. Her parents refused to sign with her, saying that if she just paid enough attention she could hear them, she could lip read enough to get by. With the mediation of her eldest sister, Dot and her parents came to an agreement. Dot would work as a seamstress surrounded by only hearing people, and she would make an attempt to continue to socialise with the hearing world, but she would move out of home.
While she could complete the work as a seamstress adequately, she struggled to make friends with the other women as she couldn’t understand a lot of what they said as they chatted and sewed. She recently moved into a boarding house close to where she went to school, so she is in the vicinity of the Deaf church, St Saviours, and the homes of her school friends. With Dot no longer at home, her parents are pressuring her even more into finding a hearing husband, even though Dot isn’t sure if she wants to marry. She has met with a few men, and kissed one of them, but it all felt very uncomfortable to Dot.
Plotting
Romance
I would love for Dot to really explore her sexuality and her love for women. She is not looking to settle down, so nothing long term. Dot’s parents are continuously pushing for her to go out with men with the intent for her to be married, so it would also be great to have some hilariously bad arranged dates.Friends
Anything really! I think it would be great for her to have a couple of hearing friends who are understanding of her deafness and are patient with her.Last Active
10 Apr 2025, 08:23Total Posts
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