Making Sense of Stigma: A Discourse Approach

• In Event: 383 - Regular Session. Narrative, Biography, and Culture 1

Abstract

In the present work, we examine discourses of bodied stigman through interviews with parents of transracial adoption (N=55) and parents of children with disabilities (N=20). These two populations, though empirically distinct, share in the experience of difference and devaluation within larger American culture. The distinct empirical position of each sub-sample allows us to parcel out underlying mechanisms of stigma discourse as seen through commonalities across cases. We show how participants move fluidly between individualist and structural discursive frames. we offer a three-pronged model of stigma discourse which includes deficit, value-free difference, and prideful proclamation.

Authors

• Jenny L Davis, James Madison University

• Bianca Nicole Manago, Indiana University

• Carla Goar, Kent State University