Stigma Contests in Late Modern Society

• In Event: Navigating Contemporary Societal Dynamics: From Professionalism to Stigma Contests

Abstract

The winning side of stigma contest is that which has best managed to ‘stir to a frenzy’ (Lemert) portions of a generally uninformed public. The winning argument against socialism in 1920s and 1930s, when it was substantial in the U.S., was predicated on successfully labeling the socialists as traitors whose redistributionist agenda amounted to theft. But there was more, including claims about the treatment of women as shared property, something that honorable men would not allow. FBI Director Hoover added a link between communism and homosexuality in the 1950s, during the heyday of McCarthyism. Hence, the reactionary political argument was supposed to be associated not only with patriotism and commonsense, but also with decency against perversion. The following presentation examines the manner of framing and linkage of right-wing populist arguments about the institutional nexus of the system of rewards and punishment.

Author

• Louis Kontos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice