Living as Socially Marked Individuals: Two Stories on Stigma and Its Consequences

Perceptions, applications, and consequences of stigma have been of interest to sociologists for centuries. Following criticisms of original labeling models, modified labeling theory (MLT) sought to reframe arguments about the consequences of negative labeling. MLT focuses on explaining how socialization teaches us the deleterious consequences of stigmatizing labels, and how anticipations of stigma are met with deliberate management to cope with expected stigma. MLT proposes three stigma management strategies: secrecy, withdrawal, and education. In the present paper, we use an autoethnographic, narrative sociology approach to share our personal experiences with stigma. The autoethnographic-storytelling approach effectively places our experiences within our cultural settings and demonstrates MLT’s applicability. Using one narrative of a designated “criminal offender” and the other of a “sexual assault victim,” we show how the politically charged labels of “offender” and “victim” while publicly framed as opposing, share similarities, thus emphasizing MLT’s explanatory potential. The narratives indicate, however, that stigma management may be more complex than present literatures capture. We propose the notion of a stigma management toolkit to help explain the availability, selection, and employment of certain stigma management practices and conclude by encouraging further theorization on stigma-related processes.