Badge of shame

A badge of shame, also a symbol of shame, a mark of shame or a stigma,^[1] is typically a distinctive symbol required to be worn by a specific group or an individual for the purpose of public humiliation, ostracism or persecution.

The term is also used metaphorically, especially in a pejorative sense, to characterize something associated with a person or group as shameful.^[2]

In England, under the Poor Act 1697, paupers in receipt of parish relief were required to wear a badge of blue or red cloth on the shoulder of the right sleeve in an open and visible manner, in order to discourage people from collecting relief unless they were desperate, as while many would be willing to collect relief, few would be willing to do so if required to wear the "shameful" mark of the poor in public.^[3]

The yellow badge that Jews were required to wear in parts of Europe during the Middle Ages,^[4] and later in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe, was effectively a badge of shame, as well as identification.^[5] Other identifying marks may include making shamed people go barefoot.

The biblical "Mark of Cain" can be interpreted as synonymous with a badge of shame.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

^ stigma. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. (accessed: January 13, 2008).
^ Hinshaw, S. (2006). Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-19-530844-0.
^ "Dependency, Shame and Belonging: Badging the Deserving Poor, c. 1550–1750*" (PDF).
^ "Jewish History 1250–1259 : 1257 Badge Of Shame (Italy)". The History of the Jewish People. Jewish Agency. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-06. ...the badge of shame was imposed locally and infrequently in Italy until the Bull of Pope Alexander IV enforced it on all papal states.
^ D'Ancona, Jacob (2003). The City Of Light. New York: Citadel. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-8065-2463-4. But the wearing of a badge or outward sign — whose effect, intended or otherwise, successful or not, was to shame and to make vulnerable as well as to distinguish the wearer...
^ Feinsilber, Mike; Webber, Elizabeth (1999). Merriam-Webster's dictionary of allusions. Springfield, Mass: Merriam-Webster. p. 95. ISBN 0-87779-628-9. As the term [mark of Cain] is used today, the idea of a protective mark has been lost; only the negative sense of a mark of shame or criminality remains.
^ R. Swinburne Clymer. Rosicrucian Fraternity in America. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. p. 207. ISBN 0-7661-3019-3. Did we not say that when Mr. Lewis wrote his first history of A.M.O.R.C. that he also wrote his confession, placing on it the badge of shame—the mark of Cain—that revealed its real purpose and spurious nature?
^ Clayton Kendall (2007). What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden?: And Rebuttal To: Eve, Did She or Didn't She?. New York: Vantage Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-533-15291-9. In light of this horror, some of the more ardent rulers and princes of this 'Christian' church-related this [yellow] badge of shame to the mark of Cain as Christ killers...
^ Maclean, Marie (1994). "9. 'Better to reign in Hell...'". The name of the mother: writing illegitimacy. New York: Routledge. p. 164. doi:10.2307/3734056. ISBN 0-415-10686-9. JSTOR 3734056. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2017-08-24. The work of Jean Genet, poet, playwright and novelist (1910–86) and Violette Leduc, innovator in prose narrative (1907–72) reverts to the ancient traditions of bastardy as excess, a badge of shame and evil, a latter-day mark of Cain, which at the same time distinguishes the bastard from the herd and confers a sort of perverse and even grandiose power.

[1] stigma. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. (accessed: January 13, 2008).

[2] Hinshaw, S. (2006). Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-19-530844-0.

[3] "Dependency, Shame and Belonging: Badging the Deserving Poor, c. 1550–1750*" (PDF).

[4] "Jewish History 1250–1259 : 1257 Badge Of Shame (Italy)". The History of the Jewish People. Jewish Agency. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-06. ...the badge of shame was imposed locally and infrequently in Italy until the Bull of Pope Alexander IV enforced it on all papal states.

[5] D'Ancona, Jacob (2003). The City Of Light. New York: Citadel. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-8065-2463-4. But the wearing of a badge or outward sign — whose effect, intended or otherwise, successful or not, was to shame and to make vulnerable as well as to distinguish the wearer...

[isbn0-87779-628-9-6] Feinsilber, Mike; Webber, Elizabeth (1999). Merriam-Webster's dictionary of allusions. Springfield, Mass: Merriam-Webster. p. 95. ISBN 0-87779-628-9. As the term [mark of Cain] is used today, the idea of a protective mark has been lost; only the negative sense of a mark of shame or criminality remains.

[7] R. Swinburne Clymer. Rosicrucian Fraternity in America. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. p. 207. ISBN 0-7661-3019-3. Did we not say that when Mr. Lewis wrote his first history of A.M.O.R.C. that he also wrote his confession, placing on it the badge of shame—the mark of Cain—that revealed its real purpose and spurious nature?

[8] Clayton Kendall (2007). What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden?: And Rebuttal To: Eve, Did She or Didn't She?. New York: Vantage Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-533-15291-9. In light of this horror, some of the more ardent rulers and princes of this 'Christian' church-related this [yellow] badge of shame to the mark of Cain as Christ killers...

[9] Maclean, Marie (1994). "9. 'Better to reign in Hell...'". The name of the mother: writing illegitimacy. New York: Routledge. p. 164. doi:10.2307/3734056. ISBN 0-415-10686-9. JSTOR 3734056. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2017-08-24. The work of Jean Genet, poet, playwright and novelist (1910–86) and Violette Leduc, innovator in prose narrative (1907–72) reverts to the ancient traditions of bastardy as excess, a badge of shame and evil, a latter-day mark of Cain, which at the same time distinguishes the bastard from the herd and confers a sort of perverse and even grandiose power.

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