SOC 2070 Lecture 6: Lecture 6
10 Nov 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 5 !
Labelling Theory: Resisting Labels and Managing Stigma!
-more subtle ways of managing labels and stigma !
-Information control ( Goffman 1963)!
•Biographic control (strategically control the information of your history such as not telling
people that you were in prison so you control your biographical info) and symbolic control
(hiding your tattoos so you’re hiding your symbols and not communicate your body art to
those who don’t like them)!
•Significance of internet (now you can look up on anyone and see everything about them
such as if they went to jail)!
-Example
-Homophobia and women’s sports (Blinde and Taub 1992)!
-Ask women what it was like being a successful athlete in a primarily male sport!
-Discussed gender norms, masculinity and sport !
-Interested to see what it felt like to a) be labelled a lesbian for playing rugby or wrestling and
b) how they reacted to this label !
-In social situations they would avoid disclosure of athletic identity (biographic control)!
-Emphasizes relations with men (biographic) !
•As a mechanism of getting rid of the label they would make comments that would reinforce
tat they have or have had a boyfriend !
-distance from those to be lesbian (symbolic)!
•Deliberately avoid socializing with females that are known to be lesbian (trying to avoid any
sort of assumption that you are who you associate with)!
•Control the symbolic part based on who they hang out with!
-Example #2
-Winnick and Bodkin (2008): stigma management and ex-cons!
-Interested in knowing how these incarcerated felons were going to deal with their label after
they have been released !
-450 prisoners in Ohio !
-Those who anticipated high stigma and rejection favoured withdraw (symbolic) and secret
(biographic)!
•The inmate was stating that they were going to try their best to lay low!
•Thought that they were not going to get a job and be accepted in the community !
-Those who antiquated minimal stigma and illusion favoured “preventative
telling” (biographic)!
•Get their version of the story out there so they could control the conversation about them
that would occur amongst others !
How “sticky” is the label?
-depends on various relevant factors !
•Severity of reaction (how severe the reaction is by the community)!
•Publicity of reaction (where there is a high degree of publicity are more likely to stick to the
individual)!
•Visibility of infraction (if the act in question is visible (seen by many) to a lot of people then
the label is going to stick)!
•Difference between publicity and visibility is publicity is the deliberate intent of making the
even public such as through media and visibility is how many eyeballs !
-The two overlap because the more you promote the more people see !
