The Social Problem of Stigmatized Groups

1
The Social Problem of Stigmatized Groups

• Erving Goffmans Explanation for Racism,
  Homophobia, Sexism and Ageism

2
What is Stigma?

• Erving Goffman defined stigma as, an undesired
  differentness from what we had anticipated
  (Goffman, 19635)

3
Three Classes of Stigma

• Goffman (1963) classified the stigmatized into
  three major groups
• abominations of the body (e.g., physically
  disabled)
• blemishes of individual character preceived as
  weak (e.g., alcoholism, mental illness,
  unemployment, homosexuality).
• tribal stigma (e.g., race, gender, religion, or
  nationality), and

4
Historical Context

• a stigma was a sign, cut or burned into the body,
  indicating status of a discredited individual
  (e.g. slave, traitor, criminal)
• The word stigma originates from the Greeks, who
  used the term to refer to a branded mark on the
  skin that signifies something undesirable about
  the bearer of the mark (Goffman, 1963).

5
Modern 7 stigma clusters

• physical disability,
• mental disability,
• economically disadvantaged,
• social deviants,
• physical appearance,
• sexual identity,
• racial identity.

6
Goffman said

• Within our society, we normals hold notions of
  what it means to be normal.
• By normal, in this context, we mean conforming to
  the present standard of behaviour or appearance
  within our society (Goffman, 1963).
• When individuals deviate from those expectations
  of what it means to be normal in terms of
  physical attributes, personality traits, and so
  forth, these individuals often are stigmatized.

7
Stigma and Prejudice

• Blacks, the obese, people with disabilities, the
  mentally ill, the homeless, the physically
  unattractive, and car-crash victims are all
  examples of stigmatized groups.
• Stigma occurs when an individual is identified as
  deviant, linked with negative stereotypes that
  engender prejudiced attitudes, which are acted
  upon in discriminatory behaviour

8
Other Theories and Stigma

• Societal Reaction Theory (Kitsuse)
• Primary deviance individual outside the norm
  who requires social control
• Secondary deviance individual changes his/her
  behaviour and self-definition to adapt to
  societys stigmatizing reaction to his/her
  difference person then begins to behave in
  expected deviant" fashion
• Tertiary deviance shifting of deviant label
  onto those who have imposed stigma

9
The Stigma Process

• An attribute is deemed salient by society, such
  that individuals with this characteristic are
  grouped together and labelled.
• Labelled characteristics are linked with negative
  stereotypes, making it easy to see labelled
  individuals as fundamentally different from the
  rest of society.
• Differentiation of us" and them" occur
  Stigmatized individuals are seen to be and are
  referred to by their label (e.g. a
  manic-depressive or a schizophrenic).

10

• Individuals experience status loss and
  discrimination as a result of their label.
  Discrimination occurs on both a personal and
  structural level.
• The stigma process is entirely dependent on the
  social, economic, and political power necessary
  to impose discriminatory experiences on the
  labelled individual or group.