Understanding and Challenging Stigma toward ... - Pact Cambodia

A1
Naming Stigma and Discrimination
toward Men who Have Sex with Men
through Pictures
Example Responses:
M10
MSM forced to get married
MSM getting married to a woman. He looks very
sad and reluctant to get married. He is starting to
have doubts already. Even his friends look sad.
Pressure on MSM to conform to gender norms.
3. Summary: Bring the session to a close by summarizing the main points
which participants have made during the exercise. In giving your summary you
may use some of the following points, if they have not already been mentioned by
participants.
Sometimes we treat people badly because of how they look or what we
suspect they do. We isolate them, e.g. refusing to sit beside MSM in the clinic;
or we gossip about them and call them names because of the way they
look. When we isolate or make fun of other people, this is called “stigma.”
It makes the person feel ashamed or disgraced.
Stigma is a process where we (society) create a “spoiled identity” for an
individual or a group of individuals. We identify a difference in a person or
group, for example a physical difference (e.g., physical disfiguration), or a
behavioral difference (e.g., men having sex with men) and then mark that
difference as something negative, as signs of disgrace. In identifying andmarking
differences as “bad,” this allows or justifies us to stigmatize the person or
group. Stigmatized people lose status because of these assigned “signs of
shame,” which other people regard as showing they have done something
wrong or bad (sinful or immoral behavior).
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