A woman is fired from her job because of an offensive phrase she said online. A man is receiving threats of rape and murder because he posted an inappropriate picture on Facebook. A teenager is being bullied and called names because of a comment she posted on her friend’s Twitter. Hence, public shaming has been around since the 1620s, where people started with bringing shame on to those who committed a sin. This practice is demonstrated through The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this book, Hester Prynne, of Puritan Boston, is shamed because she committed the sin of adultery. As a consequence, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her clothing. Then, fast-forward to modern times, and those who do wrong are shamed through
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To begin with, public shaming should be left in the past because it causes the individual to be viewed as a negative influence if targeted. To be sure, people are normally shamed if they say or comment something offensive to someone else regarding their views, race, or culture, or post a picture of themselves doing something offensive, and they become an unpleasant influence. However, back in the 1620s, people normally shamed someone if they committed a sin. In The Scarlet Letter, while Hester stands on the scaffold, a man explains to a newcomer, “You must needs be a stranger in this region, friend, else you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne and her evil doings. She hath raised a great scandal, I promise you, in godly Master Dimmesdale’s church, (A).” Here, the man who says this is saying that Hester is evil, that she is a bad influence. This is the public shaming that should have been left in the past, but no. It had to be carried into the present-day through the birth of social media. To exemplify, there was an incident that started on December 23, 2013, when a young woman by the name of Justine Sacco, wrote an offensive and perceivably racist tweet. She was about to embark on a flight, without Internet …show more content…
Above all, most comments posted on social media are positive, except for the times that photos and/or sayings involving offensive and inappropriate things are posted. For this reason, negative comments point to humiliation and bullying. As a result, people consider humiliation as the norm, or part of their culture. This is clarified by Monica Lewinsky in her speech. She brings up, “For nearly two decades now, we have slowly been sowing the seeds of shame and public humiliation in our cultural soil, both on-and-offline,(B).” But, back in the 1620s, negative comments on people’s walls wasn’t the norm. Back then, it was punishing any person who sinned. In The Scarlet Letter, as Hester Prynne is escorted by guards to the scaffold, a woman discusses, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not a law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statue-book,(A).” In this quote, the woman mentions there being a law for anyone who sins imposing that those people should die. A law points to the government. The government regulates what goes on in a country, or civilization, and people consider that their culture. So, if the government regulates what happens to people when they commit a sin, which is by punishing and shaming them, it becomes a part of the civilization’s culture. Even
To begin with, public shaming should be left in the past because it causes the individual to be viewed as a negative influence if targeted. To be sure, people are normally shamed if they say or comment something offensive to someone else regarding their views, race, or culture, or post a picture of themselves doing something offensive, and they become an unpleasant influence. However, back in the 1620s, people normally shamed someone if they committed a sin. In The Scarlet Letter, while Hester stands on the scaffold, a man explains to a newcomer, “You must needs be a stranger in this region, friend, else you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne and her evil doings. She hath raised a great scandal, I promise you, in godly Master Dimmesdale’s church, (A).” Here, the man who says this is saying that Hester is evil, that she is a bad influence. This is the public shaming that should have been left in the past, but no. It had to be carried into the present-day through the birth of social media. To exemplify, there was an incident that started on December 23, 2013, when a young woman by the name of Justine Sacco, wrote an offensive and perceivably racist tweet. She was about to embark on a flight, without Internet …show more content…
Above all, most comments posted on social media are positive, except for the times that photos and/or sayings involving offensive and inappropriate things are posted. For this reason, negative comments point to humiliation and bullying. As a result, people consider humiliation as the norm, or part of their culture. This is clarified by Monica Lewinsky in her speech. She brings up, “For nearly two decades now, we have slowly been sowing the seeds of shame and public humiliation in our cultural soil, both on-and-offline,(B).” But, back in the 1620s, negative comments on people’s walls wasn’t the norm. Back then, it was punishing any person who sinned. In The Scarlet Letter, as Hester Prynne is escorted by guards to the scaffold, a woman discusses, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not a law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statue-book,(A).” In this quote, the woman mentions there being a law for anyone who sins imposing that those people should die. A law points to the government. The government regulates what goes on in a country, or civilization, and people consider that their culture. So, if the government regulates what happens to people when they commit a sin, which is by punishing and shaming them, it becomes a part of the civilization’s culture. Even