Unspoiling Identity: An Intersectional Expansion of Stigma Response Strategies

Abstract

Sociological research has documented the various strategies employed by members of stigmatized populations to mitigate the negative social effects of these identities in everyday life. Furthermore, social and political campaigns have called for efforts toward destigmatizing identities. However, we know much less about how these groups come to aim for destigmatization and how individuals navigate multiple stigmas simultaneously or intersectional stigmas. Drawing on four years of ethnographic data, I use the case of Black gay men to articulate a form of stigma response that prioritizes the “stigmatized” rather than attending to the smoothness of interactions with a potential stigmatizer. I illustrate how the confines of multiple forms of stigma can make existing stigma response techniques, like passing and covering, untenable. I offer the term, “unspoiling” to account for the ways that some members of stigmatized populations reject the Goffmanian notion that these identities would be perpetual marks of inferiority. In so doing, I articulate an intersectional understanding of (de)stigmatization processes by attending to groups that are overlooked in mainstream efforts to focus solely on either race or sexuality. These findings add to the growing literature of stigma management response techniques and challenge the conversation of larger group destigmatization processes. This work reveals the contested process of stigma negotiation as young Black gay men debate the appropriate strategies to combat stigma in their local communities. Ultimately, unspoiling is a strategy borne out of tense discussions about the (un)acceptability of passing or covering one’s sexual identity.

Theorizing a denial reaction to coming out: Revising Goffman's stigma through a sexual identity process model

“…An overwhelming body of sexuality literature conceptualizes coming‐out as a “linear process or set of stages” (Winder, 2023, p. 197). It often follows this sequence: first, an individual undergoes queer self‐admission while in the closet.…”

“…Linearity is seldom possible for those with intersecting sexual and ethnic stigmas. Intersectionality scholars suggest that individuals concurrently navigate multiple stigmas by “unspoiling” their sexuality in settings where covering or passing is considered unacceptable (Winder, 2023, p. 195). Although scholars discredited the linear process framework in the 1990s (Kahn, 1991), it continues to underscore the coming‐out trajectories of queer people (Plummer, 1994).…”

“…Since its original publication in 1963, sociologists have proposed revisions to Goffman's theory of stigma, making it a better fit for understanding queer experiences. These amendments largely undertake stigma responses, describing selective disclosure in sexual contexts while concealing in ethnic and familial contexts (Doyle & Barreto, 2023; Svensson & Strand, 2023; Winder, 2023). While this is a crucial LGBTQ+ identity management technique, it continues to presume that disclosure denotes outness, albeit in relational contexts, which neglects the possibility of becoming re‐closeted.…”

In Defence of the Concept of Mental Illness

“…If this is the case, it is better to eliminate the stigma, rather than to deny people the opportunity to describe their suffering as illness, or identify as mentally ill, if this feels appropriate to them. This might require us to turn towards what Winder (2023) calls unspoiling a spoiled identity; creating alternative narratives around what people with that identity can be. This means working towards changing the common interpretation of an identity: recasting mental illness as more intelligible, with valuable qualities such as being able to see the world through a different lens (Garson, 2023), or writing memoirs like Saks's in order to show that mental illness-identity, intelligence, and success are not incompatible.…”

Black Interactionist Thought and the Lived‐Experience Approach to Symbolic Interactionism

“…Fortunately, a new wave of interactionist thought is on the horizon, one that is led largely by Black and Brown voices 3 . For example, scholars such as Meghji (2019), Javaid (2020), and Winder (2022) address issues of interactionism and stigma of marginalized groups using an intersectional framework. Meghji (2019) posits that white people often use white ignorance to reproduce controlling images of Black people during their interactions with Black professionals—who are often viewed as lower class, aggressive, and unintelligent by white colleagues.…”