Adopting a derogatory label as one’s own identity can transform oppression.
Evidence
One day, he was sticking his hands in a drawer when a family member walked in on him and shouted, ‘You’re a thief!’ As Sartre interpreted it, the young Genet was frozen in the gaze of the Other: he became an object slapped with a despicable label. Instead of feeling abashed, Genet took that label and changed its meaning by asserting it as his own. You call me a thief? Very well, I’ll be a thief! — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 694
Categorization
- DEFINE: Concretizes the existentialist concept of the ‘gaze of the Other’ and label-inversion via a vivid case.
- XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s account of women internalizing objectifying labels in the same chapter, and to Sartre’s bad faith discussions. — connects to: Oppressed groups reclaim power by rearticulating their own stigmatized signifiers.; Reclaiming a slur as a defiant identity label emerges from colonized shame — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 333; Claiming victim status from vaccine exclusion converts identity-based oppression into status currency. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 831 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Oppressed groups reclaim power by rearticulating their own stigmatized signifiers.
#corroborates(1.00) - Reclaiming a slur as a defiant identity label emerges from colonized shame
#expands(0.92) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 333 - Claiming victim status from vaccine exclusion converts identity-based oppression into status currency.
#exemplifies(0.85) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 831