Stigmatized groups are often secretly coveted and desired by their observers.

Evidence

And as always what is often most negatively stigmatized is at times most desired, a covetous tradition with scopophilic roots at the very heart of all social observation. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2281

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: where does this covetous/scopophilic tradition get its empirical grounding — fashion appropriation, minstrelsy, exoticism?