Internalized Categorism: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The trait is always something the character considers herself to ''be'', not something she's considering herself to believe in: If it's her beliefs that get scorned but she keeps her faith in them, she will see the scorners as bad instead of seeing herself as bad. Let's say she eventually gets [[Driven to Suicide]]: If it is out of self-hatred then it is this trope, but if it is because she can't stand the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of other people then it is a variant of [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]].

 

 

The self-hatred of internalized categorism may cause the character to become a [[Boomerang Bigot]]. However, a boomerang bigot does not ''necessarily'' suffer from any such self-hatred: The character might be too shallow for such emotions or might side with the oppressors for any number of reasons that leave room for feeling good about oneself: [[Greed]], [[Stockholm Syndrome]], even delusions of grandeur. For example, let's say that a certain African-American man believes that black people are lazy criminals and rapists. If he doesn't live like that but attributes it to denying his "true nature", then he's a boomerang bigot. If he doesn't try to get a real job because he's "just a Negro" and/or commits criminal offenses of the drug-related or sex-related kind, saying, "[[I'm a Man, I Can't Help It|I'm a Negro, I can't help it]]", then he's a case of Internalized Racism.

* [[Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny]]: Internalized hatred of sexual desire, acting out in a self-destructive or abusive manner.

* [[Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality]]: Internalized fear of sexuality, preventing the character from acting out romantically and/or sexually.

 

{{tropelist|Specific kinds of Internalized Categorism that are [[Internal Subtrope]]s:}}

* In ''[[The Idiot]]'', Nastasya Fillipovna Barashkov was Afansy Ivanovich Totsky's mistress for a time, and afterwards believed that her soul had been irrevocably corrupted by the experience. She threw herself into her role as a "bad girl" and [[Femme Fatale]], and pursued a [[Masochism Tango]] relationship with the violent Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin because she believed he was the sort of man she deserved. Furthermore, when Prince Myshkin (the novel's incarnation of [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]) declared his love for Nastasya and his belief that she was actually innocent, Nastasya turned him down—partly in order to hurt him, and partly because she was afraid she would ultimately hurt him worse if they married.

 

* In the [[Criminal Minds]] episode In Heat, {{spoiler|the unsub was a gay man motivated by the abuse his [[Heteronormative Crusader]] father subjected him to. He became convinced that he was "dirty," and began killing men and stealing their identities to escape his own.}}

* In [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]], {{spoiler|Tara}} turns out to have been abused by her relatives. Among other things, they have tricked her to believe that she's an evil demon when she's actually fully human. Believing herself to be a demon lead her to actions that almost get everyone killed, as she's desperately try to hide her "true" nature from all her friends.

** The episode leave it for the audience to decide whether or not Ruko was actually suffering from Internalized Categorism or not and whether or not {{spoiler|forcing him to move to Cardassia}} was the right choice. What you'd consider best for the child depends on whether you consider him to be a Bajoran (his identity and upbringing) or Cardassian (his biological ancestry, including his looks).

** There's also the issue of whether Ruko hated the Cardassians as an empire or as a race. Hating the empire is not a problem for him, as long as he's allowed to stay away from it. (Entering the empire would be quite dangerous, however, since it's a military dictatorship likely to eventually having him executed.) Hating Cardassians as a race would be far more problematic. Since Ruko claim to have no guilt in the atrocities committed by the empire, it is likely that his hatred is of the first kind. But it never gets analyzed in any detail.

** This is further complicated by how you feel about Ruko's adoptive parents. They raised him to consider himself a Bajoran and hate Cardassians. despite the fact that biologically Ruko is a Cardassian. The decision to move him with his biological father becomes even more complicated when you realize that his biological father didn't abandon him. He was taken from him without his knowledge.

== [[Music]] ==

* The song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVWNDR9gM2E Broken]" by [[Bad Religion]] brings up the danger of putting people down, that they might start believing it themselves.

** Worth noting that bondage is heavily tied to being a Pony girl. This apparently is allowed, even in public, with no shame on either the slave or the slaver. But a Pony girl is socialy considered an animal, with no right to speak, refuse sex (in a setting where slave ''can'' say "No") or wear anything but leather straps. Pony girl are used to pull carts, and there are official riding races. So bondage is shunted on "normal" slaves but mostly allowed for slaves degraded to labor animals.

* In the Circle Tower in ''[[Dragon Age]]'', there is a mage who is completely convinced that all mages are in fact horrible monsters that should never have been allowed to be left alive and prays to the Maker to free her from her cursed existence, as well as all the other mages who are in denial of their evil nature.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Done rather [[anvilicious]]ly (with "homophobic Jones") in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110417182019/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/20 this strip] of ''[[Loserz]]''. Guess how it turns out.

 

* [[Zinnia Jones]] talks about [[Internalized Homophobia]] in several episodes, especially [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9_xsFId_eI ''coming out''], which is based on the concept that [[Heteronormative Crusader]] antics are designed to ''make'' gay people hate themselves.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] is Catholic, but Catholicism is one of the many religions that he's prejudiced against.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sociology Tropes]]

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]

[[Category:Averted Empowerment]]