What Is Erving Goffman Thesis On Stigma

Erving Goffman thesis on stigma was published in 1963, his work was titled, Stigma: management of a spoiled identity. The Greeks originated the term stigma to “refer to bodily signs designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of the signifier.” (Goffman, 1963.) The Greeks cut or burned signs into the skin of a criminal or a traitor, to create a blemished person, this individual must be avoided at all costs, especially in public. The Greeks definition resulted in the classic sociological notion of stigma, which describes the processes of social relations that lead to and reproduce definitions of “the other” and “the outsider”, this then leads to the stigmatization processes, which results in specific groups as being dangerous, undesirable, unsettling or disturbing. …show more content…
The marked differences on “the other’s” body or the “socially disqualifying attributes” lead to a tainted or spoiled identity (Jones et al., 1984). This attributes in time lead to shame, disgrace or failure. This paper shall discuss Erving Goffman’s thesis on the “stigmatized body” in greater detail and shall apply the main features of his framework to the stigmatization surrounding HIV and AIDS, and the stigmatization surrounding females. Each of these examples will be examined, firstly, by what Erving Goffman described as stigma, being devalued in society for not fitting in with societal norms, secondly, it will examine Goffman’s division of stigma into three different forms, bodily, tribal and character, and thirdly, the spoilt identity a person suffering from stigma may