Stigmatization

People being discredited or looked down upon for belonging to a certain category or seen as behaving in a way associated with that category. It is a matter of social norms for how people are supposed to behave and what categories it is considered acceptable to belong to. The same category or behavior that is preferred in one social context may be stigmatized in another.1 (In Swedish: stigmatisering)

Interactions

This facet of categorism is an expression of bigotry or a side effect of prejudice and discrimination.

It is likely to intersect with facets such as:

• Marginalization: Those who are not given a chance to participate and contribute are then looked down upon for not participating and contributing.
• Hate-crimes: Low level hate-crimes are often a matter of stigmatizing people.

As well as with abstractions such as:

• Loosely defined abyss-category: Letting the stigma define itself.

Examples of applying this facet to a particular foci of categorism can include:

• Whorephobia: People constructing sex workers as being "dirty" harms sex workers in many ways. Including, ironically, making it harder for them to quit because thy fear they might get fired from any other job if their background gets outed.

Stigmatization in example texts

• Adam's homophobia: Adam doing stigmatization on the individual level by expressing his bigotry and on the dogmatic level by promoting a worldview that has no room for gay people.
• A frivolous arrest: On the individual and systemic level: To be arrested is shameful for the individual as well as for the category.