Everything about Badge Of Shame totally explained
A
badge of shame, also a
symbol of shame,
mark of shame, or simply a
stigma, is typically a distinctive mark or token on a person deemed as worthy of
public humiliation or
persecution, and required to bear a distinguishing sign in public or in captivity. The
yellow badge that
Jews were required to wear in parts of
Europe during the
Middle Ages, and later in
Nazi Germany and
German–occupied Europe, was intended to be a
badge of
shame. The term may also refer to other identifying marks that are associated with shame. The biblical "
Mark of Cain" can be interpreted as synonymous with a badge of shame. The term is also used metaphorically, especially in a pejorative sense, to characterize something associated with a person or group as shameful.
History
Depilation
Punitive
depilation of men, especially burning off
pubic hair, was intended as a mark of shame in ancient cultures where male body hair was valued. Women who committed
adultery, have also been forced to wear specific icons or marks, or had their hair shorn, as a badge of shame throughout history. Many women who fraternized with the occupiers in German–occupied Europe had their heads shaved by angry mobs of their peers after liberation by the
Allies of World War II. During the war, the Nazis also used head shaving as a mark of shame to punish Germans like the youthful non-conformists known as the
Edelweiss Pirates.
Clothing
In
Ancient Rome, both men and women originally wore the
toga, but over time matrons adopted the
stola as the preferred form of dress, while prostitutes retained the toga. Later, under the
Lex Julia, women convicted of
prostitution were forced to wear a
toga muliebris, as the prostitute's badge of shame.
At the beginning of the 13
th century,
Pope Innocent III prohibited Christians from causing Jews bodily harm, but supported their segregation in society. On at least one occasion he likened this to the fate of
Cain described in the
Book of Genesis, writing to the
Count of Nevers, “The Lord made Cain a wanderer and a fugitive over the earth, but set a mark upon him,… as wanderers must [theJews] remain upon the earth, until their countenance be filled with shame…”
After Innocent III later presided over the
Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215,
the council adopted cannon 68, requiring Jews (and Muslims) to dress distinctively to prevent interfaith relations.
This cannon was largely ignored by the secular governments of Europe until 1269 when King
Louis IX of France, later Saint Louis, was persuaded to decree that French Jews must wear a round
yellow badge on their breast and back.
After the
Albigensian Crusade ended in 1229, the subsequent
Papal inquisition of
Pope Gregory IX imposed the
ecclesiastical penance of the
Cathar yellow cross as a badge of shame to be worn by the remaining repentant
Cathars convicted of
heresy.
In
colonial New England during the 17
th and 18
th centuries, courts required people convicted of
sexual immorality to wear the letter
'A' or letters
'AD' for adultery and the letter
'I' for
incest on their clothing. Striped prison uniforms commonly used in the 19
th century were abolished in the United States early in the 20
th century because their continued use as a badge of shame was considered undesirable.
Skin
Like the
Mark of Cain from the Bible, societies have marked people directly in the practice generally known as being "branded a criminal". Criminals and slaves have been marked throughout history with
tattoos. Sexual immorality in colonial New England was also punished by
human branding with a hot iron, by having the marks burned into the skin of the face or forehead for all to see.
James Nayler, an
English Quaker convicted of blasphemy in 1656, was famously branded with a
'B' on his forehead.
Headware
In old-fashioned
French schoolrooms, misbehaving students were sent to sit in a corner of the room wearing a sign that said "" meaning
donkey or ass, or were forced to wear a
jester's cap with donkey's ears, sometimes conical in shape, known as a "cap d'âne", meaining "ass' head". In traditional
British and
American schoolrooms, the tall conical "
dunce cap", often marked with a the letter
'D', was used as the badge of shame for disfavored students. The dunce cap is no longer used in modern education, although other forms of shame are still used to punish students.
Other meanings
Nazi concentration camp badges of shame were triangular and color coded to classify prisoners by reason for detention, and Jews wore two triangles in the shape of the six-pointed
Star of David. These symbols, intended by the Nazis to be marks of shame, had opposite meanings after
World War II: the triangle symbols were used on memorials to those killed in the concentration camps,
and the
Zionist's Star of David, also co-opted for the Nazi version of the yellow badge, was subsequently featured prominently on the
flag of Israel.
Conversely, symbols intended to have positive connotations can have
unintended consequences. After
World War I the
U.S. War Department awarded gold
chevrons to soldiers serving in the combat zones in Europe. The silver chevrons awarded for honorable domestic service in support of the war effort were instead considered a badge of shame by many recipients.
More recently, in 2007, the
Bangkok,
Thailand police switched to punitive pink armbands adorned with the cute
Hello Kitty cartoon character when the
tartan armbands that had been intended to be worn as a badge of shame for minor infractions were instead treated as collectibles by offending officers forced to wear them, creating a
perverse incentive.
Fictional works
In
Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic 1850 romance novel
The Scarlet Letter, set in 17th century
Puritan Boston, the lead character Hester Prynne is led from the town prison with the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she'd committed and it's to be a symbol of her sin for all to see. Originally intended as a badge of shame, it would later take on different meanings as her fictional life progressed in the story.
The 1916
silent film The Yellow Passport, starring
Clara Kimball Young, was also known as
The Badge of Shame when it was reissued in 1917.
receives a badge of shame from a
sensitivity trainer in the comedic
Reebok television commercial "Sensitivity Training" (first aired
February 1, 2004). The shame badge was round with a stylized square
emoticon face with a straight mouth and the caption "shame" below.
In the
Halo series, specifically
Halo 2 and
Halo 3, after failing to eliminate
Master Chief, the head of the
Covenant Elite is branded with the Mark of Shame and forced to take the position of
The Arbiter, an almost suicidal position in the
Covenant military. In Halo 3, one of the possible emblems in the multiplayer mode is the Mark of Shame.
In the 2006 film,, Lord
Cutler Beckett (
Tom Hollander) is seen using as a
fireplace poker, a
branding iron with the letter
'P' that he used to impart the "pirate's brand" seen on the right forearm of Captain
Jack Sparrow (
Johnny Depp). According to the backstory, Sparrow was branded a pirate by Beckett for refusing to transport slaves for the
East India Trading Company.
Media
Garrison Keillor, host of the popular
American National Public Radio program
A Prairie Home Companion, answered a listener question in 1998, by saying that he considered having never been
fired from a job in his
radio broadcasting career as a badge of shame.
At the 2008
Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas, Nevada, the
Consumer Electronics Association decided to issue
bloggers white credentials, while issuing colored
press passes to other members of the media. The bloggers called this the "white badge of shame".
Politics
After then
President of the United States Bill Clinton's
impeachment, and subsequent acquittal, Clinton told
Dan Rather in a
March 31,
1999 television interview, "But I don't regard this impeachment vote as some great badge of shame…."
Further Information
Get more info on 'Badge Of Shame'.
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