Beyond recognition: Identification and disidentification in visual resistance to stigma

Abstract

This article theorizes visual practices of stigma resistance as a continuous play with identification and disidentification. Based on an ethnographic study of young, stigmatized activists’ self-images, I argue that the oft-employed concept of recognition only partially captures visual/digital resistance to stigma. In addition to claiming recognition, I show how creating unrecognizability is a key component in subverting stigmatizing categorizations. Complementing existing analyses on how we fight stigma by ‘presenting ourselves differently’ to others, my analysis of self-images looks at how the activists relate to themselves differently: how they negotiate and work with identifications. I distinguish two strategies of visual stigma resistance: resignification and opacity through multiplicity. Resignification – the visual interpretation of reclaiming – refers to one (temporarily) identifying with a derogatory label but redefining it into a source of pride. Multiplicity, in turn, operates by portraying the self as multiple and transforming, destabilizing potential categories and names, and rendering the self unintelligible. By showing stigma resistance as a play with becoming visible and unintelligible, the article argues for moving beyond recognition and stigma as binary concepts.