More thinking about stigma

In this post lets answer a couple questions on stigma.

What does Goffman mean by writing, “the normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives.” (p. 138) ?

In his book, Stigma Goffman makes an interesting statement that, "the normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives."(p.138) The normal are the people in a society that are free from any stigmatization. They are the ruling majority. The stigmatized are of course the minority groups that the normals do not approve of due to their beliefs, actions, or appearance.
So why are these two groups not considered people but rather perspectives in Goffman's view? Because Goffman looks at this problem from the sociological and psychological perspectives. What each person perceives of the outside world with their senses is different from another person. Thus, we all have different perspectives on the world. However, humans live in groups or societies. Now, individuals and society are two different entities that have to interact with one another. Thus, the actions or behavior of individuals change when they enter a group. So a society breaks up into groups where individuals are accepted. So in the end we get dominant and minority groups. The dominant groups then proceed to impose their perspectives onto the rest of the society. So what a society considers normal or stigmatized is in the end a perspective of a dominant group. In the case of Medieval Europe, the dominant group was the Christian Church and the minority of stigmatized groups were Jews, prostitutes, and lepers.

What are Stigma Symbols ?

Each society creates different symbols of stigma that identify with the chosen group of people. In Medieval Europe some of these stigmatized groups included Jews, prostitutes, and lepers. Each group received different stigma symbols to distinguish it from the so called 'normal' society. So for example, 'normal' women could be distinguished from prostitutes. This way there was no confusion. (Because if confusion did arise when a 'normal' member unknowingly interacted with the stigmatized. The 'normal' member then would be punished for the interaction).

So what type of stigma symbols did all the different groups receive?

First lets examine Jews. Their symbols included the color yellow, pointy hats, garlic, money bags, and a gold colored circle on their clothing. The Fourth Lateral Council of 1215 passed a law requiring all Jews to wear a gold circle on their clothing. This way Christians would know not to interact with Jews. (Because marriage between the two groups was forbidden, so was any form of sexual interaction, etc.)

But what about the other groups you might ask?

Well, prostitutes were forced, by the Fourth Lateral Council, to wear yellow ribbons in their hair and also excessively rich looking clothing. Stigma symbols associated with lepers were the bell or the clapper. Of course the physical appearance of a leper was the most obvious stigma symbol. In addition, lepers were removed from society, and were actually considered dead by it. Lepers were thus forced to beg on the streets.