Stigma And Stigma In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

797 Words4 Pages

Stigma and Stigma Management on Speak Introduction Goffman’s definition of Stigma is when people think ill of you for a characteristic you possess, or for something you have done. These can result in a ruined reputation, for which peers avoid you for being lesser in some way. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino is known as the snitch after calling the cops on her first high school party. Everyone hates her. These stigmas caused her to downward spiral horrible anxiety as she hides what really happened. Stigma Concepts According to page 16 of the Unit 2 instructor summary, Erving Goffman claimed that “stigmas can result in a “spoiled identity” or a situation where an individual is devalued and, therefore, avoided”. One type of stigma is blemishes of the individual character, where a person is judged because of a character flaw that someone believes another person has. Another type of stigma is an abomination of the body, where people stigmatize others for physical flaws that they deem “weird”. The final type of stigma is tribal stigma. These stigmas are placed on people based on things they were born into, and that were completely out of a person’s control, like race and gender. Goffman also gave …show more content…

No one knew that was the reason, and Melinda didn’t tell a soul out of fear of more stigmatization. But, as a result of this anxiety, mixed with the memory of when he had forcibly kissed her, she bites her lips to the point they bled. Soon, her lips were scarred and scabbed, now labeling her as “the girl with the weird lips”, an abomination of the body. The more she gets bullied and stigmatized, the more she falls into a deeper state of depression. This causes her hygiene to fall down, then getting her stigmatized for being poorly dressed, and having greasy hair. The vicious cycle to

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