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Internalized Categorism: Difference between revisions
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"Categorism" is a catch-all word for racism, sexism, homophobia, and all such phenomena where individuals are clumped together into a category of people -- negative stereotypes, prejudice, strict norms and/or entitlement for the normative group. As a trope, internalized categorism covers real social categories as well as fictional ones, such as mutants with superpowers.
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.
Of course, if a hero is plagued with this psychological problem, it can be a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]/[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Heartwarming]] to see him/her overcome it and learn to some needed self-esteem.
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==== Specific kinds of [[Internalized Categorism]] that are [[Internal Subtrope|Internal Subtropes]]: ====
* Internalized Homophobia: Gays who hate themselves and/or believe they have to have to do destructive things like having lots of unsafe sex with strangers because they have been taught that "that's how gay people are". For the non-internalized version, see [[Heteronormative Crusader]].
* Internalized Sexism: Women or men hating themselves simply for being born into a certain gender, or deny themselves everything that doesn't fit into a very narrow gender role. (This hatred is about a belief that the gender is inferior or evil or "supposed to behave" in a very limited way, not about being a [[Transsexual]] and actually desiring to be another sex.) For the non-internalized version, see [[He
* Internalized Racism: People hating themselves for their genetic ancestry or ethnicity, or reduce themselves to racial stereotypes. For the non-internalized version, see [[Racist Grandma]].
* Internalized Mutiephobia: [[Marvel Universe|Super-powered mutants]] who hate themselves... or goes "Hey, society consider us evil. So I guess we are. Lets just [[Then Let Me Be Evil|accept our role as a bad race]] and call ourselves ''Brotherhood of evil mutants''. (In the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|silver age]] comics, this group was evil, period. It was later retconned into having suffered from [[Internalized Categorism]] and/or having chosen their name ironically.) For the non-internalized version, see [[Fantastic Racism]].
* Internalized Paraphobia: self-hating fetishists, sadomasochists et cetera. For the non-internalized version, see [[Heteronormative Crusader]]. With the social norms being arbitrary, paraphobia can apply to mainstream heterosexuality as well: ''Any'' mainstream relationship is "deviant" when the norm is [[Lie Back and Think of England]]. For the not-so-internalized version of this kind of paraphobia, see [[Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny]].
* Normopathy: People who hate themselves for being different from others in any way, and thus hide any skills or talents that might make them stand out from the crowd. Psychologically and narratively, there's not much difference between [[Internalized Categorism]] and Normopathy, that's why it's an [[Internal Subtrope]] here. Philosophically, however, it's quite a big difference - Normopathy condemns talent and power and individuality ''as such'' rather than specific groups.
{{examples
== [[Anime and Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', many of the girls who become [[Magical Girl Warrior|Puella Magi]] [[What Measure Is a Non
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', some of the meanest people are said to hate themselves because they are squibs — and taking this self-hatred out on young wizards of whom they are jealous. While more ambiguous, it is also possible that Tom Riddle (Voldemort) himself was embarrassed over being a half-blood and that his [[Fantastic Racism]] was partly a overcompensation for this.
* In one of the official collections of shortstories for ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', the hero goes through severe identity confusion and self-hatred as he discovers that he's actually a child of the ''evil'' werewolf clan, the Black Spiral Dancers. (He eventually snaps out of it and concludes that he doesn't have to be like his ancestors.)
* There are several versions of this in ''[[The Regeneration Trilogy]].'' On one hand are the [[Shell
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'' deals with this after Battle School. He hates himself for what he was--a child military genius {{spoiler|who wiped out most of an alien race}} and emphatically does not want to continue being that person. As an adult, he becomes [[The Atoner]], hiding his identity while traveling the galaxy and trying to create peace and understanding.
* In ''[[The Idiot (Literature)|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.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In an episode of [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]], a unicorn named The Great And Powerful Trixie comes to town and starts wowing the townsfolk with her flashy magic tricks, but Twilight Sparkle's friends take an instant dislike to Trixie's showoffy nature. Spike sees through the flash and knows that Twilight, who is genuinely talented at unicorn magic, could put her in her place in no time flat, but Twilight (a lifelong bookworm who is sort of new to this whole "having friends" thing) is petrified that any sort of showoffery at all will drive her friends away from her, and refuses. She spends the entire episode insisting that she's nothing special and has no more right to show how talented she is than flash-in-the-pan Trixie; when her talent ultimately saves the day her friends point out that they're proud of Twilight for being special, and it was Trixie's attitude rather than her (ultimately one-note and useless) talent that had their hackles up.
{{reflist}}
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