Shame as a Tool for Oppression

Alkhafaji, Danah Fatimah

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Shame as a Tool for Oppression

Alkhafaji, Danah Fatimah

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the ways in which shame functions as a tool of oppression,constricting, ostracizing, and reducing the individual. This oppression is based on normative societyand is often aimed at minority identities based on a perceived inferiority of gender, race, sexuality,and so on. Shame functions as a tool of oppression when implemented in order to reduce theindividual to a vulnerability of their identity, making shame an irresolvable feeling once put onto theindividual. In order to explore the relevance of shame as an oppressive experience, Krista K.Thomason, Jeffrie G. Murphy, and Thomas Nagel’s arguments will be utilized in order to argue forthe damaging nature of shame. In exploring the normative influence of society at large in relation toshame, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Jean Paul Sartre, and others will be implemented in order toaid my arguments. Finally, I will propose a real-world example of shame as a tool of oppression, inthe case of Israeli pinkwashing and the blackmailing of Queer Palestinians. Implementing thearguments from the thinkers mentioned, as well as my own, I will make a case about shame’soppressive nature.