From Shame to Game: Identity Transformation, Stigma Integration, and Pride in Paralympic Athletes

• In Event: Joint Roundtables: Social Psychology Section and Sociology of Emotions Section
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 2 - Organizations & Work

Abstract

Can presentation of stigma create space for integration of identity? Goffman identified stigma as something to hide away and keep to oneself, but movements to embrace stigmatized identities encourage pride in what may have once caused shame. Drawing on ethnography and interviews with Paralympic athletes, this article illustrates a process by which stigmatized individuals embrace their stigma and find new strategies for navigating daily interactions through belonging in a group of similarly stigmatized others. Forced to confront the reality of a stigma they tried to hide away in order to join elite para sport, athletes acknowledge shame and discover that their stigma does not necessarily restrict the creation of social ties, but can also facilitate them. Presentation of stigma through competition transforms the experience of disability from shameful to prideful, which enables athletes to move forward in daily interactions with increased emotional energy. Uniting Scheff’s theory of shame, Goffman’s work on stigma and the presentation of self, Hochschild’s theory of emotion work, Collins’ work on emotional energy and interaction ritual, and an exploration of the applications of Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness to disability, this paper outlines a theoretical framework for understanding possible paths to identity transformation for stigmatized individuals.

Author

• Mary Grace Walsh, University of Notre Dame