OBJECTIFICATION AND OPPOSITIONAL IDENTITY

In Week 2, you learned about stigma and privilege. Privilege results in preferential treatment, and stigma results in negative treatment. Stigma involves objectification, or treating people as if they are objects and members of a category rather than as individuals. In the A Class Divided video clip, you saw the teacher Jane Elliott use an exercise in her third grade classroom to teach students about discrimination. She used discrimination as the overarching term. Here discrimination includes objectification, stigma, and privilege. When people encounter discrimination, they may redefine their identity. In this Discussion, you will consider how identity can be redefined as a result of objectification. In addition, you will address the concept of oppositional identity, which occurs when individuals embrace the way they are objectified and act in a way that reinforces the objectification.

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.