Opinion | From Honour To Silence: Shame As A Tool of Social Control |
Shame is one of the most powerful yet understated forces in shaping human behaviour, and societal structures and norms at large. Unlike formal rules, laws or punishments, shame is silently corrosive, operating via glances, silences, jokes, moral judgements, and internalised expectations.
From an early age, the fear of being embarrassed, ostracised and deemed wrong is instilled into our very being; a tightrope that we straddle for the rest of our lives. Repeated instructions and model behaviours by those around us serve as a template for navigating social situations. In this way, conformity and avoidance of shame become potent tools of social control, regulating behaviour by binding personal identity to collective approval.
From a sociological viewpoint, shame is a social product, crafted and enforced through cultural norms and power relations. What one learns to be ashamed of varies across cultures and historical periods. Psychologically, it is both an emotion and a catalyst which transforms external surveillance into self-policing, governing conduct, sustaining hierarchies and maintaining social order. Unlike guilt, which is built on the premise of “I did something bad", shame targets one’s self-image and identity as “I am bad". By bridging society and the psyche, shame both reflects and dictates the social power structures of various societies.
One of the primary ways in which shame functions as a means of social control is through exclusion due to........