Stigma:
1) the recognition of difference based on some distinguishing characteristic or mark;
2) a consequent devaluation of the person
Quiggles:
a made-up term (by the famous sociologist, Erving Goffman) to identify all of the variations and difference of the human body which occur either from birth, daily wear and tear, accident, or illness which can be, and will be, stigmatized.
It is just days after the failed July physician-terrorist attempts on London and I've just hung up the phone from talking to one of my all-time favorite colleagues in Britain. Of course the conversation eventually turned to the recent events. I asked him how he and others were coping since they travel into Central London each day. Over the last few years I've noticed how different our two cultures are when it comes to recovering psychologically from events such as this, and true to form his reaction was different from what I expected. He pointed out that his fellow countrymen had carried on admirably when Hitler's crowd dropped tons of bombs on England and that they will do the same again today, because "if we change our lives, the terrorists have won." In fact, even though he recognizes he is talking to the wrong people, he claims he cannot resist whenever he goes through the long queues (read lines) at Heathrow remarking to the security people that it looks like the terrorists have scored a victory by holding up everyone in long lines. This "victory" is about to change however, and soon queues will be a thing of the past at Heathrow, because many more security stations are rapidly being put into place. Ironically the driver behind this change is capitalism.
Heathrow's waiting area is in-and-of-itself a shopping mecca (they even have their own branch of Harrods, no less) and the retailers complained of a substantial drop in revenue because everyone was standing in security lines rather than shopping -- score one for capitalism and more importantly the freedom it brings.
I love cultural differences and never lose the opportunity to learn about them. As I was listening to this Brit, the thought occurred to me that there is a parallel in how we in the USA might choose to react to terrorism and how we choose to react to being stigmatized. Many people with health conditions and disabilities which are visually apparent tell me that they live their lives mostly at home to avoid such ramifications of stigma as being accosted in public with questions from complete strangers, or being stared at whenever they go out. Don't such decisions (which are made by a lot of people who have health conditions or disabilities that are easily noticed) mean the stigmatizers, just like the terrorists, have won?
According to my colleague, we take away their victory -- the terrorists' and the stigmatizers' -- by not allowing them to change the way we live our lives, because it is a war we are facing and by the nature of war there will be a victor. Here in my opinion is where we Americans do run into a spot of trouble. Except for a couple of wars way back in our history, we are not used to doing battle on our home turf, yet that is exactly where stigma hits us, on our home turf -- in the intimate parts of our lives.
