I Hate my Voice

Coming to Terms with Minor Bodily Stigmas

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2276895
AutoresCarolyn Ellis (0000-0002-4129-6296)
Año1998
Volumen39
Número4
Páginas517-537
Fecha de publicación1998-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1533-8525.1998.tb00516.x
OpenAlexW1929883879
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas35
Referencias citadas40

This article presents a narrative, autoethnographic, theoretical account of the public and private negotiation of “minor bodily stigmas,” which are mild physical “imperfections” that make us fear we stand out and might be rejected. To examine the situated complexity of stigmatized identity, I tell a story that shows concrete interactional details of an episode in which minor bodily stigmas evolved into a significant topic of conversation between strangers. My personal narrative explores the felt experience of minor bodily stigmas from the perspective of the experiencing and interacting holder. Thus, my work problematizes Erving Goffman's sociological approach to stigmas, which examines inclusively all forms of stigmas from a distanced observational stance of beholder that privileges the outsider perspective of how others see us. Using minor bodily stigmas as a heuristic category, I emphasize how they are experienced as a double bind in interaction (to notice or not to notice) and a double bind in personal feelings (of moral character as well as physical appearance). I seek to connect theoretical and categorical understandings of minor bodily stigmas to their concrete felt experience in day-to-day life in order to examine possibilities for resisting and reframing stigmas in everyday life

Aesthetics · Conversation · Feeling · Identity (music) · Linguistics · Mainstream · Minor (academic) · Narrative · Perspective (graphical) · Sociology · Communication · Emotional Labor in Professions · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology