Post by ck4829 on Dec 29, 2016 0:24:59 GMT
Each of us has our own unique identity made up of a combination of personality traits, personal and family history, and other attributes. But what happens inside when an identity is not celebrated by a person’s community?
In Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity (1963), author Erving Goffman uses the term “spoiled identity” to refer to an identity that causes a person to experience stigma. For Goffman, “stigma” describes the experience of moving through life with an attribute that is deeply discrediting. This attribute divides people into those-who-are-normal and those-who-are-not, thereby making those-who-are-not less worthy. Spoiled identities include racial minority, ethnic minority, sexual orientation, gender, sex, and religious identities, body size, and visible and invisible disabilities.
From Outside to Inside
As a therapist, what becomes worrisome about people living with an identity that others have labeled wrong is that they often start to believe it themselves. This process is sometimes called “internalization.” The stigmatized attribute becomes internalized and the negative belief becomes a part of who that person is. For example, if a young girl is told every day, indirectly and directly, that she should be thin and that not being thin reduces her value as a human being, she is likely to believe it. Not only that, but the belief that she is unlovable can even become a core part of her identity.
These internal messages might be so common that we don’t even recognize them. For example, it’s not unusual to hear women on a daily basis talk dismissively about their bodies. Body negative banter is almost an essential part of being a woman in the United States – if you don’t join in you might even feel left out. And yet these are harmful messages about weight, gender, and beauty that have been internalized until they are unrecognizable as cultural messages and often mistaken as essential truths.
www.therapistdamon.com/2011/05/redefining-ourselves-navigating-spoiled-identities/
In Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity (1963), author Erving Goffman uses the term “spoiled identity” to refer to an identity that causes a person to experience stigma. For Goffman, “stigma” describes the experience of moving through life with an attribute that is deeply discrediting. This attribute divides people into those-who-are-normal and those-who-are-not, thereby making those-who-are-not less worthy. Spoiled identities include racial minority, ethnic minority, sexual orientation, gender, sex, and religious identities, body size, and visible and invisible disabilities.
From Outside to Inside
As a therapist, what becomes worrisome about people living with an identity that others have labeled wrong is that they often start to believe it themselves. This process is sometimes called “internalization.” The stigmatized attribute becomes internalized and the negative belief becomes a part of who that person is. For example, if a young girl is told every day, indirectly and directly, that she should be thin and that not being thin reduces her value as a human being, she is likely to believe it. Not only that, but the belief that she is unlovable can even become a core part of her identity.
These internal messages might be so common that we don’t even recognize them. For example, it’s not unusual to hear women on a daily basis talk dismissively about their bodies. Body negative banter is almost an essential part of being a woman in the United States – if you don’t join in you might even feel left out. And yet these are harmful messages about weight, gender, and beauty that have been internalized until they are unrecognizable as cultural messages and often mistaken as essential truths.
www.therapistdamon.com/2011/05/redefining-ourselves-navigating-spoiled-identities/