Loading...
Rejecting Identities: Stigma and Hermeneutical Injustice
Edlich,Alexander Archer,Alfred
Edlich,Alexander
Archer,Alfred
Abstract
Hermeneutical injustice means being unjustly prevented from making sense of one's experiences, identity or circumstances and/or communicating about them. The literature focusses almost exclusively on whether people have access to adequate conceptual resources. In this paper, we discuss a different kind of hermeneutical struggle caused by stigma. We argue that in some cases of hermeneutic injustice people have access to hermeneutical resources apt to understand their identity but reject employing these due to the stigma attached to the identity. We begin with a reinterpretation of one of the cases discussed in the literature, Edmund White's novel A Boy's Own Story. We argue that in this case hermeneutic resources are available but are rejected due to the stigma attached to homosexuality. We then present two analogous kinds of cases: alcohol addiction and being the victim of intimate partner violence. Here, too, hermeneutic injustice occurs because of the stigma attached to an identity rather due to unavailability of resources. We close by suggesting that these cases may, additionally, involve the wrong of 'Tightlacing': by meddling with their self-conception, stigma can manipulate individuals into a view of themselves that licenses inappropriate demands on them and makes them complicit in the erasure of their identities.
Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Date
2024-10-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Hermeneutic injustice, Tightlacing, epistemic injustice, stigma, SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being, SDG 5 - Gender Equality, SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation
Edlich, A & Archer, A 2024, 'Rejecting Identities : Stigma and Hermeneutical Injustice', Social Epistemology, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 463-475. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2024.2407646
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess