Chasing Stigma Through the Ages, Part 6

Let’s keep going with Erving Goffman for a while, because that man was incredibly tuned in to issues that are exactly as vital (if not more so!) now as they were six decades ago when “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity” was published. What an incredible find!

Note these incontestable facts about what has happened since then:

• Science has advanced to an unimaginable extent.
• Academic papers containing millions of words have been published.
• Entire institutions dedicated to this exact issue have been built and staffed, and have established formidable reputations for themselves.
• Billions of dollars have been spent on research and theories and programs and methods and trials and the education of new generations of scientists and doctors.
• Thousands of brilliant professionals have devoted their careers to figuring out how to stop obesity from being such a curse.

And yet, meanwhile, grownups who were not even born yet when Goffman articulated his ideas have spent their entire lives regretting how an extra-large body has impacted their lives. All over the world, countries that did not even use to know the meaning of the word “obesity” are now drowning in tons of it. Entire professions that did not yet exist when Goffman did his work are dedicated to making sure that people all over the planet consume tons of stuff whose intent and purpose is to destroy them. That stuff, incredibly, is unquestioningly accepted as food.

Further, we do not want our current babies and kindergarteners to be the next generation made miserable by obesity… Which they are in serious danger of becoming, because no matter how much science has progressed in the meantime, human nature has not improved by one iota. And we need Erving Goffman today, because the threat of obesity is hanging over our children worse than it has over any previous generation since people were invented.

A wide range of interests

Goffman’s sympathy did not extend only to the obese. He empathized with people stigmatized for other reasons, too. A woman unable to conceive a child, for instance, might be pushed aside and totally disregarded. A person of either sex who was born with a facial deformity might be shunned and avoided throughout life.

Depending on geography, education, religious faith, “political correctness,” and dozens of other variables, there are plenty of circumstances all around the globe right now that cause individuals to be “othered.” They might be shunned, or barely tolerated, or made to feel their difference in a number of ways.

What it all boils down to is that, just like in almost any society that has ever existed, certain individuals are deemed unacceptable. Goffman’s book concentrated on…

[…] the issue of “mixed contacts” — the moments when stigmatized and normal are in the same “social situation,” that is, in one another’s immediate physical presence, whether in a conversation-like encounter or in the mere co-presence of an unfocused gathering. The very anticipation of such contacts can of course lead normals and the stigmatized to arrange life so as to avoid them. Presumably this will have larger consequences for the stigmatized, since more arranging will usually be necessary on their part.

Looking back in history, Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame is perhaps the prime fictitious example of a character who is “othered” by physical circumstances.

An interesting side note is that in the late 1950s, just before Goffman’s non-fiction work on stigma was published, Lawrence Durrell wrote a series of novels known as the Alexandria Quartet, which caused a sensation in the realm of literary fiction. Two of the characters suffer from facial deformities that strongly influence their personalities and activities.

One is landowner Narouz Hosnani, described as jealous, frustrated, and fanatically religious. Despite his cleft lip and palate (surgically uncorrectable at the time), he is an impressive orator who also enjoys killing wild animals with a whip, and murders a human by forcing a hatpin into his skull.

Another Durrell character is Leila, whose famously beautiful face is “melted” by smallpox. Despite also being a very intelligent woman who speaks several languages, she has no choice but to wear a heavy black veil and live reclusively in a country house with a tame snake as companion.

Even today, many people who have been taught that they are unacceptably different catch on quickly, and do society a favor by self-isolating, to whatever extent is possible. What are the results of such categorization? Goffman wrote,

Lacking the salutary feed-back of daily social intercourse with others, the self-isolate can become suspicious, depressed, hostile, anxious, and bewildered.

Of course, those are not the only negative results. A person who is “othered” may feel insecure, inferior, jealous, disrespected, shunned, deficient, unwanted, undesirable, hopeless, and unfixable.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity,” WordPress.com, 1963
Image by jovemVoodo/Pixabay

Chasing Stigma Through the Ages, Part 3

Here is the sort of fact that AI proves its singular brand of genius by identifying: In modern written English, the verb “stigmatize” occurs only once in every million words.

In real life, the act of stigmatizing occurs a million times every second. Yes, that is only a figure of speech, not officially verified. But an aware parent is all too likely to discover that when their kid is stigmatized, one incident per year is too many.

We don’t want a child to cry because another six-year-old decided that it’s lame to bring an apple in your home-packed lunchbox, and made an issue out of it. Nor do we want a 14-year-old to contemplate suicide because some teenage idiot mocked his haircut. Humiliating one’s peers is a favorite sport of kids, and learning how to avoid being targeted is an important life skill.

To stigmatize a fellow human being is to brand, label, mark, stamp, defame, denounce, and disgrace… All things that a decent parent does not want done to a daughter or son, no more than they would want that child to be shot, drowned, or set on fire. Acknowledging his expertise on the subject, we stick for a while longer with author Erving Goffman:

By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human. On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, if often unthinkingly, reduce his life chances.

Tragically, even some parents exist who practice types of discrimination against their own overweight offspring, and effectively reduce those children’s odds of ever achieving various life benefits, including mental health. Those parents are of course welcome on this page, with the understanding that they need more help than can be found here, and with the hope that they recognize the sad fact and seek that help.

Sticks and stones may break my bones…

“[b]ut words will never hurt me.” For centuries, parents have repeated that old saying to their children, with little effect. Goffman, of course, mentions the obvious: the cruel propensity for inventing rude nouns and adjectives to characterize the stigmatized people. In our particular area of interest, we have seen how even the professionals who are trained and paid to care most about their clients have been capable of using, and even coining, terminology that can easily be read as offensive.

But of course, it goes further than verbal insults. Humans have always had a wonderful talent for explaining the world by constructing mythologies, origin stories, legends, doctrines, lore, and folk tales to explain the various universal phenomena of everyday life. Goffman wrote,

We construct a stigma-theory, an ideology to explain his inferiority and account for the danger he represents… We tend to impute a wide range of imperfections on the basis of the original one, and at the same time to impute some desirable but undesired attributes, often of a supernatural cast, such as “sixth sense,” or “understanding…”

That last remark is striking because, of course, it is true of fat people, who are rumored to be gifted with an extraordinary sense of humor. On the downside, however, this is countered by the large number of associated negative stereotypes that are so familiar, there is no need to list them here. Goffman wrote,

Shame becomes a central possibility, arising from the individual’s perception of one of his own attributes as being a defiling thing to possess, and one he can readily see himself as not possessing… In some cases it will be possible for him to make a direct attempt to correct what he sees as the objective basis of his failing.

Obesity is famous for being — unlike blindness, for instance — a handicap that a person can get rid of just by taking control and doing what’s necessary to shed 50 or 250 pounds. Many people have done exactly that, and still come out on the other side with problems.

Or, they were unable to succeed in the first place, often because of insufficient knowledge and preparation. The author cites “[…] the stigmatized person’s exposure to fraudulent servers selling speech correction, skin lighteners, body stretchers, youth restorers, cures through faith….” or, in this case, shady peddlers of methods and medicines that somehow just never seem to work out.

Here is Goffman’s take on one way in which “happily ever after” can be an elusive outcome:

Where such repair is possible, what often results is not the acquisition of fully normal status, but a transformation of self from someone with a particular blemish into someone with a record of having corrected a particular blemish.

Who wants to spend the rest of their life being introduced with the footnote, “You’re not gonna believe this, but Howard used to weigh more than 400 pounds!”

Of course, it’s still preferable to the alternative.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Stigmatize,” OED.com, undated
Source: “Stigmatize,” Thesaurus.com, undated
Source: “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity,” WordPress.com, 1963
Image by diegartenprofis/Pixabay

Chasing Stigma Through the Ages

Because some truths are eternal, today’s post refers to a work published six decades ago, whose roots go back centuries. Written by Erving Goffman, its title is “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity,” and its subject is one that concerns us because if our children grow up to be unacceptably obese according to the standards of the time and place, stigma is what they will face daily throughout their lives.

The word itself has a complicated origin, intertwined with not only punitive laws but with the Christian religion. Stigmata are wounds or scars that spontaneously appear on the body of a saint or other particularly holy individual, in locations (hands, feet, torso) commemorating the violence inflicted on Jesus during the crucifixion.

But no…

What we are talking about here is the other meaning, the intentionally inflicted wounds that served as warning labels, signaling to others that they should avoid a stranger because of potential trouble. The presence of those scars meant, “To help this escaped slave could get you imprisoned,” or “While this sinner did not do something bad enough for a sentence of execution, he was convicted of a serious crime, so steer clear.” It’s where the expression “He’s a marked man” came from — there would be a literal mark, usually on the face, the meaning of which was clear to the general public.

One of the points made by Goffman’s work is that “shifts have occurred in the kinds of disgrace that arouse concern.” To be stigmatized, a person no longer needs to be a fugitive or a convict — or to be held down and branded with a hot iron. A body that is too big, according to the standards of the time and place, is enough to signify that a person’s “social identity” is one that decent, upstanding, right-minded citizens might (and probably should) be repelled by. Because of this expectation, it is easy to “read” the stranger as worthy of blame for being dangerous, evil, or at the very least, weak.

The author’s extensive study of the subject causes him to occasionally throw in a phrase like,

A stigma, then, is really a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype.

How does this relationship manifest itself, out in the world?

The term stigma and its synonyms conceal a double perspective: does the stigmatized individual assume his differentness is known about already or is evident on the spot, or does he assume it is neither known about by those present nor immediately perceivable by them?

Then, in many instances, another if/then factor becomes apparent. Even in the case of obvious differentness, like skin color or obesity — does anybody really care? If they don’t, then the interaction or the relationship can move on to more relevant points.

But just in case

In reaction to a stigmatized individual, the author points out, we let our prejudiced mental stereotypes take over — “transforming them into normative expectations, into righteously presented demands.” Those demands can show up in many guises. For instance, if the morbidly obese stranger is gracious enough to make a little joke like, “Gee, I hope I don’t break your chair,” we might feel inclined to give that person a pass (at least temporarily) because they have bowed to our automatic revulsion by acknowledging how disgusting they are.

Our mental filing cabinet registers that gesture of surrender and makes a note: “At least she knows her place in the hierarchy of worthiness.” The overweight individual can mollify and (temporarily, anyway) neutralize our disgust by confessing to their inadequacy. A fat teenager can become acceptable and even popular within a friend group by frequently insulting himself and saving everybody else the effort.

Acceptance, even grace

A stigmatized person who bows to, and often acknowledges, the group’s stereotypes can earn forgiveness. In their subconscious minds, the others are doing the person a favor by granting a temporary pass into the human race. Of course, the trouble with a temporary pass is that it can be revoked at any time.

We are only on Page 5, and Goffman is just getting started. Here are a few more points:

By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human. On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination…

We construct a stigma-theory, an ideology to explain his inferiority and account for the danger he represents…

We use specific stigma terms…

We tend to impute a wide range of imperfections on the basis of the original one…

Obviously, even the most limited and un-intellectually inclined “normal” individuals can generate sufficient insults, pranks, slurs, putdowns, slights, taunts, and sneers to make anyone’s life miserable. But wait, there is more:

Further, we may perceive his defensive response to his situation as a direct expression of his defect, and then see both defect and response as just retribution for something he or his parents or his tribe did, and hence a justification of the way we treat him.

When persecutors with a few more brain cells, material resources, and additional free time become involved, they have the means to concoct entire theoretical constructs and mythologies and old wives’ tales to justify the mistreatment of some particular type of person. Not only that, but they can accrue enough power and influence to affect the scientific fundamentals, and even the religious institutions and the legal underpinnings of a society, to the detriment of a chosen group.

(To be continued…)

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity,” WordPress.com, 1963
Image by Tumisu/Pixabay

Prepare for the Worst, Part 3

The posts in this sequence explore some of the dark corners of obesity-related attitudes, because parents of children who seem to be headed in that direction might benefit from awareness about the future possibilities. The intention here is not to frighten anyone into locking the potentially obese child into a closet where a few hundred calories per day can be passed through a slit in the door.

However, evidence exists in every corner and on every level of society that the life of a morbidly obese individual is not ideal. Of course, no parent is advised to make a child’s existence miserable in order to avoid obesity. On the other hand, no parent is advised to ignore a potential situation in the hope that it will just go away.

It has long been accepted that to attach “phobia” to a word does not exactly connote fear of the thing. “Homophobia,” for instance, is understood to signify an emotion closer to hatred, but it sounds more acceptable in polite society.

In a nightclub

This sentence in a Psychology Today article was written by Seth Meyers, Psy.D., about a live standup comedy performance where an obese comedian told a stupid joke that would not have been funny, or even interesting, no matter who might have said it. About the audience, Dr. Meyers observed,

They laughed because they hate fat people, and worse, because they believe fat people deserve such spite.

But then, the mental health professional pulled a switcheroo and went on to explain how that was not true at all, and actually, a totally different dynamic was in play. Here is what really happens when haters display their obnoxious behavior:

They’re taking a mental break — almost like releasing a valve with too much pressure — from judging themselves.

In this situation, the performer on stage has volunteered for a role that should have become obsolete centuries ago, and it’s not a court jester. In the olden days, anyone who mattered was forced to live in or near the royal palace, where the monarch could keep an eye on them, and also to make sure that the ruler could be seen to administer justice. But if the crown prince misbehaved, his sacred person could not be violated, so there was a staff member called the whipping boy, who would be punished instead, in the hope that the prince would feel bad and learn how to behave properly.

In modern times

So, what a professionally obese person does is fill the role of whipping boy, absorbing the scorn that members of the general public (in this case, audience members) secretly feel they themselves actually deserve. And at least the stage professional volunteered for the job. But the lady next to you in the airplane didn’t ask to be your whipping boy. She gets the job anyway, as you spend on her that disgust you actually feel for your own 30 extra pounds.

Meyers observes that “there appears to be limitless self-judgment out there in the universe,” which is reflected in the amount of judgment that the ordinary citizen is prepared to dish out, especially on obese people, who are pathetically easy targets. The random observer in the grocery store aisle will not be equipped with enough knowledge to judge you for eating your own hair, but will certainly be able to guess that you eat too many doughnuts.

And, parents: The world is full of sad, mad, self-hating people who can’t wait to judge, dislike, and embarrass your child, in the unconscious and very mistaken belief that pouring out scorn on somebody else will make them feel better, and heal their pain-filled lives.

Here is another thing: While helping our own child to grow up undamaged, we probably don’t particularly want to damage anybody else along the way, or contribute to the unhappiness of somebody we don’t even know. Also, Dr. Meyers suggests a way to help make the world a kinder, more understanding place by taking the Empathy Test.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “The Psychology of Why People Dislike or Hate Fat People,” PsychologyToday.com, 05/06/11
Image by FreeFunArt/Pixabay