Term Paper

A moral career according to Erving Goffman is where “persons who have a particular stigma tend to have similar learning experiences regarding their plight, and similar changes in conception of self”. An example of this from Stigma, is the blind woman Domenica, who was at the beach and was thought to be asleep at the time, and overheard one of her friends saying that he liked her, however he would never date a blind girl. Before that situation, she wasn’t aware that being blind was such a terrible, inconceivable condition. Her household and family members, most likely protected her from learning that being blind, would prevent her from certain opportunities, and limit her enjoyment and quality of life in that matter.

Another example from the book is the person who suffered from cerebral palsy. The stigmatized person in this situation reveals how he or she was protected throughout their life, until having to get out in the “real world”. By the real world, I am referring to applying to jobs in the corporate world. They explain how, “Looking for a job was like standing before a firing squad,” and how, “employers were shocked that I had the gall to apply for the job”. Personally, reading this made me realize that having a serious condition isn’t the worst of the stigmatized person’s problems, it’s how they are treated by the so called “normals”, in their quest to fit in and move up in society.

The roles of the institutions in the social structure, such as a family is to make the stigmatized person feel as if they are no different than a person who isn’t suffering from a stigma, or a noticeable one for that matter. Government seems to be playing a part in comforting the stigmatized as well. For example, not long ago, New Jersey Governo...

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...to a positive in that respect. After he became president he had the opportunity to use his power to raise awareness of the disease.

The moral career is what happens when a stigmatized person understands their stigma and is protected growing up, and then they lose that protective feeling when thrown out into the real world. This is something that people who are considered “normal”, still must deal with somewhat. For example some of the students I went to high school with were bullied by others simply because the bully felt that he could get away with it. The book also mentions that there are numerous corrective surgeries for people with physical deformities, to get rid of their stigma and improve their lives. However after the surgery is completed, the person realizes that being a person without a stigma isn’t the smooth sailing life that they assumed it would be.