Humiliation Wayne Kontenbaum Analysis

Humiliation in the eyes of author Wayne Koestenbaum is “to be made human”. Humiliation can be perceived as a “rite of passage” or a “passport to decency”. This brings up the question, what constitutes humiliation? And, is there a difference between humiliation and shame? As described by Koestenbaum, humiliation occurs when three specific parties are present a victim, an abuser, and a witness or witnesses. The key difference between humiliation and shame is whether or not someone was present to witness the act take place. For the most part, humiliation is considered an external happening and is also visually observable, while shame is merely an internal happening. Generally, people try to avoid situations where they can be humiliated, unless

In Humiliation Koestenbaum focuses on the humiliation of public figures. Koestenbaum refers to two public figures both of whom have faced immense scrutiny because of their public humiliation. One of them being President Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The other being Michael Jackson and alleged child molestation accusations. Both figures faced large-scale humiliation, because their famous their humiliation was only more amplified. Meaning, millions of people witnessed their humiliation take place, and they were left to face with what at the time must have seemed like never-ending

One noteworthy example would be the fiasco known as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. A presidential campaign which was chock-full of humiliations and disappointments, from the day it started to the day it came to an end. After being the butt of dozens of public spectacles throughout her own campaign, it’s reasonable to say that no one should have been surprised when Hillary lost. The public saw firsthand the downwards trend of her favorability during the general election, and her appeal to voters across all boards was “intolerable” to say the