society; stigma
Sarah Waters an
Why the Stigma? You don’t belong to that group, why are you here? Many seem to be capable of recognising that it is s ta te m e n t s l i ke th i s th a t a re preventing forward motions within society towards the ‘utopia’ that we all strive towards. So, if this is the case, why is it so ingrained within us to stereotype others and place them in the large box titled, ‘different’? Typical of our human nature, the idea of stigmas are so contradictory to our apparent moral compasses. Unlike other issues that have blown out as a result of our technology boom, stigma has been a f und a m e n ta l a s pe c t of g l o b a l societies, made more acute by travel and encounters with ‘The Other.’ With that, comes the question of why we subject others to hurt, after having been hurt ourselves? It is this that has sparked the whole train of you hurting him who hurt her who hurt them who hurt me and it seems to be a never ending cycle in which no one takes responsibility or attempts to put an end to it all. Well, as summed up by Sandra D Wilson, ‘hurt people hurt people’ and maybe this is able to give us true insight into our human experience and why we are driven to exclude and stigmatise those who fall in the category of ‘not like me’. Is it possible that the stigmas we project are to hide our insecurities 030
by bringing others down? If this is the case, can we reverse the damage? Or, at the very least, stop the cycle of projecting stigmas? Perhaps the best way to help slow the spread of stigmas is to become aware of what they are and how they impact others. But not merely aware, but attempting to trul y understand what it would feel like. This is easy enough to say, but unfortunatel y harder to do. We forget quickly and learn slowly. It’s like having one of our pastoral care *intense* periods where everyone leaves feeling like they are going to miraculously change and refuse to ever do anything wrong again. But that period is short as we realise that the rest of the world hasn’t changed. Saying this isn’t to appear morbid and present humanity in such a way that we feel we can never improve. It is to show the importance of education and create awareness about what it is like. Perhaps, if we take on the challenge of ‘little and often’ we can start to make a change. Perhaps, if we all take off the rose coloured glasses we can see our world as it is, but more importantly, as it could be. Take today to stop before you stigmatise, to pick up on the inconsistencies in our world and work to act justly and with purpose. If we work together, the ‘different’ can become the ‘wonderful’, and the ‘Other’, become the ‘Us’. features and human interests
