title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: One of the TV serial dialogue refers to a character in the serial as ""do take ki larki" (second rate / worthless woman)" became famous among misogynists of Pakistan and severely criticized by feminists. Feminist Tahira Abdullah called out the wording judgmental, 'It's not for any one to judge a woman good or bad based on woman's loyalty; respect and dignity is woman's right not dependent on anyone else's willingness. Just by being a woman she deserves to be treated human born equal to not beg but claim equal rights. Women do not need men to define standards of behavior for women and categorize who is good or bad woman", referring to the famous utterance of Qamar that women by definition are modest & loyal and those who are not modest and loyal do not deserve to be called women at all. In the same debate, Qamar called himself to be "the biggest feminist". Pakistani actress Iffat Omar pointing out that the last episode of the serial poses questions over the double-standard Qamar-presented Pakistani conservative narrative that a Pakistani woman is expected and idealized for forgiving a husband's disloyalty as Maham, the wife of Shehwar Ahmad, who was involved in an extra-marital relationship, forgives him. On the other hand, lead protagonist Danish is shown to not be able to bear the extra-marital relation of his wife Mehwish but rather prefers death as sign of non-forgiving. Pakistani males' non-acceptance of spousal choices and at the same time, entitled Pakistani males expect forgiveness for their own behavior.


title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: In other debates Khalil-ur-Rahman Qamar also made other controversial statements like: "women should gang rape men if they want equality."; "Aurat March is a conspiracy of some 35 women who belong to a specific class." Pakistani actress Iffat Omar responded back saying women do not ask equality to rape men but to redress patriarchal double standards & injustices towards fellow women.


title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: Later, some actors of the serial preferred to distance themselves from ensuing controversies. Actress Rehmat Ajmal accepted that she stumbled a little since she was not aware enough about how the TV serial will come out on the screen, and that she necessarily does not endorse controversial views expressed by the writer Qamar. Actor Adnan Siddiqui said that he understands the dialogues had problematic leanings and he wished drama could have been more nuanced in depiction of women.


title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: In an interview with Dawn Images Ayeza Khan confirmed that she's starring in a drama serial Mere Paas Tum Ho, with Humayun Saeed. In an interview Khalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar said that Sonya Hussyn, Sanam Jung and Ayeza Khan was offered for the role of Mehwish. Likewise, the role of Danish was previously offered to Feroze Khan who refused after a falling out with the writer Khalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar. A Nadeem Baig's directional, written by Khalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar and Produced by Humayun Saeed and Shahzad Nasib the duo previously worked together in 2017 Blockbuster film Punjab Nahi Jaungi. On 22 November 2018 shooting started and On 17 July 2019 the shooting wrapped. On being asked why he choose this drama Saeed said that "this script was great and it was witref>h him for 3 years but he was focusing on his films so Nadeem decided to cast someone else. But Khalil became angry because he wanted Saeed to play the lead role in this drama So Saeed agreed to do this Drama Serial". On 31 July 2019 The first look and teaser was released.


title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: Meray Paas Tum Ho became the first Pakistani drama to trend no 1 on twitter worldwide. It started off very well, the first episode gained 10.9 TRPs which were the highest first episode ratings at that time (this record was later broken by Ehd-e-Wafa which garnered 11 trps in its 1st episode). Episode 23 which was the last episode of the serial got 37.1 TRPs, which is the highest ratings of any TV program of Pakistan. Episode 22 got 26.2 TRPs, which is the 2nd highest ratings of any TV program of Pakistan, while, Episode 17 got 24.9 TRPs, which is the 3rd highest ratings of any TV program of Pakistan. Episode 20 got 24.0 TRPs, which is the 4th highest ratings of any TV program of Pakistan.


title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: The final episode was a 'mega double episode' and aired on 25 January 2020 and was simultaneously shown on TV as well as being screened in major cinemas across Pakistan (in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad). The cast were present at Nueplex Cinema in Karachi for the finale.


title: Meray Paas Tum Ho

text: The title song was sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The music was composed by Naveed Nashad and the lyrics were written by Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: "More popular than Jesus" is part of a remark made by John Lennon of the Beatles in a March 1966 interview in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus and that Christian faith was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. His opinions drew no controversy when originally published in the London newspaper "The Evening Standard", but drew angry reactions from Christian communities when republished in the United States that July.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Lennon's comments incited protests and threats, particularly throughout the Bible Belt in the Southern United States. Some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs, records were publicly burned, press conferences were cancelled, and the Ku Klux Klan picketed concerts. The controversy coincided with the band's 1966 US tour and overshadowed press coverage of their newest album "Revolver". Lennon apologised at a series of press conferences and explained that he was not comparing himself to Christ.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: The controversy exacerbated the band's unhappiness with touring, which they never undertook again; Lennon also refrained from touring in his solo career. In 1980, he was murdered by a Christian fan of the Beatles, Mark David Chapman, who later stated that Lennon's quote was a motivating factor in the killing, although he refuted it as a motive in later years.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In March 1966, London's "Evening Standard" ran a weekly series titled "How Does a Beatle Live?" that featured John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Paul McCartney. The articles were written by Maureen Cleave, who knew the group well and had interviewed them regularly since the start of Beatlemania in the United Kingdom. She had described them three years earlier as "the darlings of Merseyside", and in February 1964 had accompanied them on their first visit to the United States. She chose to interview the band members individually for the lifestyle series, rather than as a group.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Cleave carried out the interview with Lennon in February at his home, Kenwood, in Weybridge. Her article portrayed him as restless and searching for meaning in his life; he discussed his interest in Indian music and said he gleaned most of his knowledge from reading books. Among Lennon's many possessions, Cleave found a full-sized crucifix, a gorilla costume, a medieval suit of armour and a well-organised library with works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Another book, Hugh J. Schonfield's "The Passover Plot", had influenced Lennon's ideas about Christianity, although Cleave did not refer to it in the article. She mentioned that Lennon was "reading extensively about religion", and quoted him as saying:


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Cleave's interview with Lennon was published in "The Evening Standard" on 4 March under the secondary heading "On a hill in Surrey ... A young man, famous, loaded, and waiting for something". The article provoked no controversy in the UK. Church attendance there was in decline and Christian churches were attempting to transform their image, to make themselves more "relevant to modern times". According to author Jonathan Gould: "The satire comedians had had a field day with the increasingly desperate attempts of the Church to make itself seem more relevant ('Don't call me vicar, call me "Dick" ...')." In 1963, Bishop of Woolwich John A.T. Robinson published "Honest to God" urging the nation to reject traditional church teachings on morality and the concept of God as an "old man in the sky", and instead embrace a universal ethic of love. Bryan R. Wilson's 1966 text "Religion in Secular Society" explained that increasing secularisation led to British churches being abandoned. However, traditional Christian faith was still strong and widespread in the United States at that time. The theme of religion's irrelevance in American society had nevertheless been featured in a cover article titled "Is God Dead?" in "Time" magazine, in an issue dated 8 April 1966.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Both McCartney and Harrison had been baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, but neither of them followed Christianity. In his interview with Cleave, Harrison was also outspoken about organised religion, as well as the Vietnam War and authority figures in general, whether "religious or secular". He said: "If Christianity's as good as they say it is, it should stand up to a bit of discussion." According to author Steve Turner, the British satirical magazine "Private Eye" responded to Lennon's comments by featuring a cartoon by Gerald Scarfe that showed him "dressed in heavenly robes and playing a cross-shaped guitar with a halo made out of a vinyl LP".


title: More popular than Jesus

text: "Newsweek" made reference to Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" comments in an issue published in March, and the interview had appeared in "Detroit" magazine in May. On 3 July, Cleave's four Beatles interviews were published together in a five-page article in "The New York Times Magazine", titled "Old Beatles – A Study in Paradox". None of these provoked a strong reaction.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Beatles press officer Tony Barrow offered the four interviews to "Datebook", an American teen magazine. He believed that the pieces were important to show fans that the Beatles were progressing beyond simple pop music and producing more intellectually challenging work. "Datebook" was a liberal magazine that addressed subjects such as interracial dating and legalisation of marijuana, so it seemed an appropriate publication for the interviews. Managing editor Danny Fields played a role in shining a spotlight on Lennon's comments.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: "Datebook" published the Lennon and McCartney interviews on 29 July, in its September "Shout-Out" issue dedicated to controversial youth-orientated themes including recreational drugs, sex, long hair and the Vietnam War. Art Unger, the magazine's editor, put a quote from Lennon's interview on the cover: "I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity!" In author Robert Rodriguez's description, the editor had chosen Lennon's "most damning comment" for maximum effect; placed above it on the cover was a quote from McCartney regarding America: "It's a lousy country where anyone black is a dirty nigger!" Only McCartney's image was featured on the front cover, as Unger expected that his statement would spark the most controversy. The same Lennon quote appeared as the headline above the feature article. Beside the text, Unger included a photo of Lennon on a yacht, gazing across the ocean with his hand shielding his eyes, accompanied by the caption: "John Lennon sights controversy and sets sail directly towards it. That's the way he likes to live!"


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In late July, Unger sent copies of the interviews to radio stations in the American South. WAQY disc jockey Tommy Charles in Birmingham, Alabama, heard about Lennon's remarks from his co-presenter Doug Layton and said, "That does it for me. I am not going to play the Beatles any more." During their 29 July breakfast show, Charles and Layton asked for listeners' views on Lennon's comment, and the response was overwhelmingly negative. The pair set about destroying Beatles vinyl LPs on-air. Charles later stated, "We just felt it was so absurd and sacrilegious that something ought to be done to show them that they can't get away with this sort of thing." United Press International bureau manager Al Benn heard the WAQY show and filed a news report in New York City, culminating in a major story in "The New York Times" on 5 August. Sales of "Datebook", which had never been a leading title in the youth magazine market beforehand, reached a million copies.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Lennon's remarks were deemed blasphemous by some right-wing religious groups. More than 30 radio stations, including some in New York and Boston, followed WAQY's lead by refusing to play the Beatles' music. WAQY hired a tree-grinding machine and invited listeners to deliver their Beatles merchandise for destruction. KCBN in Reno, Nevada, broadcast hourly editorials condemning the Beatles and announced a public bonfire for 6 August where the band's albums would be burned. Several Southern stations organised demonstrations with bonfires, drawing crowds of teenagers to publicly burn their Beatles records, effigies of the band, and other memorabilia. Photos of teenagers eagerly participating in the bonfires were widely distributed throughout the US, and the controversy received blanket media coverage through television reports.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: The furore came to be known as the "'More popular than Jesus' controversy" or the "Jesus controversy". It followed soon after the negative reaction from American disc jockeys and retailers to the "butcher" sleeve photo used on the Beatles' US-only LP "Yesterday and Today". Withdrawn and replaced within days of release in June, this LP cover showed the band members dressed as butchers and covered in dismembered plastic dolls and pieces of raw meat. For some conservatives in the American South, according to Rodriguez, Lennon's comments on Christ now allowed them an opportunity to act on their grievances against the Beatles – namely, their long hair and championing of African-American musicians.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: According to Unger, Brian Epstein was initially unperturbed about the reaction from the Birmingham disc jockeys, telling him: "Arthur, if they burn Beatles records, they've got to buy them first." Within days, however, Epstein became so concerned by the furore that he considered cancelling the group's upcoming US tour, fearing that they would be seriously harmed in some way. He flew to New York on 4 August and held a press conference the following day in which he claimed that "Datebook" had taken Lennon's words out of context, and expressed regret on behalf of the group that "people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way". Epstein's efforts had little effect, as the controversy quickly spread beyond the United States. In Mexico City, there were demonstrations against the Beatles, and a number of countries banned the Beatles' music on national radio stations, including South Africa and Spain. The Vatican issued a denouncement of Lennon's comments, saying that "Some subjects must not be dealt with profanely, not even in the world of beatniks." This international disapproval was reflected in the share price of the Beatles' Northern Songs publishing company, which dropped by the equivalent of 28 cents on the London Stock Exchange.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In response to the furore in the US, a "Melody Maker" editorial stated that the "fantastically unreasoned reaction" supported Lennon's statement regarding Christ's disciples being "thick and ordinary". "Daily Express" columnist Robert Pitman wrote, "It seems a nerve for Americans to hold up shocked hands, when week in, week out, America is exporting to us [in Britain] a subculture that makes the Beatles seem like four stern old churchwardens." The reaction was also criticised within the US; a Kentucky radio station announced that it would give the Beatles music airplay to show its "contempt for hypocrisy personified", and the Jesuit magazine "America" wrote that "Lennon was simply stating what many a Christian educator would readily admit."


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Epstein proposed that Lennon record an apology at EMI Studios, with Beatles producer George Martin taping. Because Lennon was away on holiday, this would have required him to record it by phone. According to EMI recording engineer Geoff Emerick, engineers spent several days designing a dummy plaster head to amplify a phone recording to make it sound more realistic. This plan was abandoned when Lennon decided against recording the apology.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: The Beatles left London on 11 August for their US tour. Lennon's wife Cynthia said that he was nervous and upset because he had made people angry simply by expressing his opinion. The Beatles held a press conference in Barrow's suite at the Astor Tower Hotel in Chicago. Lennon did not want to apologise but was advised by Epstein and Barrow that he should. Lennon was also distressed that he had potentially endangered the lives of his bandmates by speaking his mind. While preparing to meet the reporters, he broke down in tears in front of Epstein and Barrow. To present a more conservative image for the cameras, the Beatles eschewed their London fashions for dark suits, plain shirts, and neckties.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: At the press conference, Lennon said: "I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying we are greater or better." He stressed that he had been remarking on how other people viewed and popularised the Beatles. He described his own view of God by quoting the Bishop of Woolwich, "not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us." He was adamant that he was not comparing himself with Christ, but attempting to explain the decline of Christianity in the UK. "If you want me to apologise," he concluded, "if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Journalists gave a sympathetic response and told Lennon that people in the Bible Belt were "quite notorious for their Christian attitude". Placated by Lennon's gesture, Tommy Charles cancelled WAQY's Beatles bonfire, which had been planned for 19 August, when the Beatles were due to perform in the South. The Vatican's newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" announced that the apology was sufficient, while a "New York Times" editorial similarly stated that the matter was over, but added, "The wonder is that such an articulate young man could have expressed himself imprecisely in the first place."


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In a private meeting with Unger, Epstein asked him to surrender his press pass for the tour, saying that it had been a "bad idea" for Unger to publish the interviews, and to avoid accusations that "Datebook" and the Beatles' management had orchestrated the controversy as a publicity stunt. Epstein assured him that there would be better publishing opportunities for the magazine if he "voluntarily" withdrew from the tour. Unger refused and, in his account, received Lennon's full support when he later discussed the meeting with him.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: The tour was initially marred by protests and disturbances, and an undercurrent of tension. On 13 August, when the band played in Detroit, images were published of members of the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan "crucifying" a Beatles record on a large wooden cross, which they then ceremoniously burned. That night, the Texas radio station KLUE held a large Beatles bonfire, only for a lightning bolt to strike its transmission tower the following day and send the station temporarily off-air. The Beatles received telephone threats, and the Ku Klux Klan picketed their concerts in Washington, DC, and Memphis, Tennessee. The latter was the tour's only stop in the Deep South<ref name="Runtagh/RS"></ref> and was expected to be a flashpoint for the controversy. Two concerts took place there at the Mid-South Coliseum on 19 August, although the city council had voted to cancel them rather than have "municipal facilities be used as a forum to ridicule anyone's religion", adding that "the Beatles are not welcome in Memphis".


title: More popular than Jesus

text: An ITN news team sent from London to cover the controversy for the program "Reporting '66" held interviews with Charles and with teenagers in Birmingham, many of whom were critical of the Beatles. ITN reporter Richard Lindley also interviewed Robert Shelton, the Ku Klux Klan's Imperial Wizard, who condemned the band for supporting civil rights and said they were communists. Coinciding with the band's visit to Memphis, local preacher Jimmy Stroad held a Christian rally to "give the youth of the mid-South an opportunity to show Jesus Christ is more popular than the Beatles". Outside the Coliseum, a young Klansman told a TV reporter that the Klan were a "terror organization" and would use their "ways and means" to stop the Beatles performing. During the evening show, an audience member threw a firecracker onto the stage, leading the band to believe that they were the target of gunfire.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: At press conferences later in the tour, Lennon attempted to avoid the subject of his "Jesus" comments, reasoning that no further discussion was necessary. Rather than shying away from controversy, however, the Beatles became increasingly vocal about topical issues such as the Vietnam War. In Toronto on 17 August, Lennon expressed his approval of Americans who evaded the draft by crossing the border into Canada. At their New York press conference on 22 August, the Beatles shocked reporters by emphatically condemning the Vietnam War as "wrong".


title: More popular than Jesus

text: The Beatles hated the tour, partly due to the controversy and adverse reaction to Lennon's comments, and they were unhappy about Epstein continuing to organise live performances that were increasingly at odds with their studio work. The controversy had also overshadowed the American release of their 1966 album "Revolver", which the band considered to be their best and most mature musical work yet. Following the tour, Harrison contemplated leaving the group, but he decided to remain on the condition that the Beatles would focus solely on studio recording.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In 1993, Michael Medved wrote in "The Sunday Times" that "today, comments like Lennon's could never cause controversy; a contemptuous attitude to religion is all but expected from all mainstream pop performers." In 1997, Noel Gallagher claimed that his band Oasis was "bigger than God", but reaction was minimal. The following day Melanie C responded to Gallagher saying "If Oasis are bigger than God, what does that make the Spice Girls? Bigger than Buddha? Because we are a darn sight bigger than Oasis". Writing for "Mojo" magazine in 2002, David Fricke credited Cleave's Lennon interview and the "More popular than Jesus" controversy as marking the start of modern music journalism. He said that it was "no coincidence" that Paul Williams, a seventeen-year-old Swarthmore College student, launched America's first serious rock publication, "Crawdaddy!", in 1966, given the Beatles' influence and Lennon's "sense of mission" as a spokesman for youth culture.<ref name="Fricke/MojoSpecial"></ref>


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Lennon's comments continued to be the subject of scrutiny in right-wing religious literature, particularly in the writing of David Noebel, a longstanding critic of the Beatles' influence on American youth. According to a 1987 article by Mark Sullivan in the journal "Popular Music", a photo from WAYX's Beatles bonfire in Waycross, Georgia, which shows a child presenting the "Meet the Beatles!" LP for burning, became "Probably the most famous photograph of the entire anti-rock movement". According to Steve Turner, the episode became "so much a part of history" that the words "More popular than Jesus" are synonymous with the 1966 controversy.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In 2012, Nathan Smith of the "Houston Press" compared several aspects of popular media and concluded that Jesus was more popular than the Beatles. In 2015, "Philippine Star" contributor Edgar O. Cruz said that Lennon's statement proved to be at least half-wrong, reporting that "rock 'n roll is dead but Christianity expanded with Catholicism experiencing exceptional growth through Pope Francis' lead".


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Former Beatles press officer Derek Taylor referred to the controversy in a late 1966 article for the "Los Angeles Times West": "I'm seriously worried about someone with a rifle. After all, there's no Kennedy anymore; but you can always shoot John Lennon." After the tour, the Beatles took a break and reconvened in November 1966 to begin recording "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which was a major success when released in June 1967. Lennon wanted Jesus to be included in the menagerie of figures featured on the album's cover, but this was not done because of the past year's controversial statement.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: At various points in 1968, Lennon claimed to be the living reincarnation of Christ. In May 1969, the band released "The Ballad of John and Yoko" as a single, with Lennon singing the lines, "Christ, you know it ain't easy, you know how hard it can be / The way things are going, they're gonna crucify me." Lennon called himself "one of Christ's biggest fans" during a BBC interview at the time. He also talked about the Church of England, his vision of heaven, and unhappiness over being unable to marry Yoko Ono in church as a divorcee. In December 1969, Lennon was asked whether he would play the part of Jesus in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's new musical "Jesus Christ Superstar". Lennon had no interest in the part, although he said that he would have been interested if Ono could play the part of Mary Magdalene.


title: More popular than Jesus

text: Lennon repeated his opinion that the Beatles were more influential on young people than Christ during a trip to Canada in 1969, adding that some ministers had agreed with him. He called the American protestors "fascist Christians", saying that he was "very big on Christ" and "I've always fancied him. He was right." In 1977, Lennon briefly converted to Christianity after becoming a fan of several televangelists. He also corresponded with some, including Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson. In 1978, Lennon said that, if he had not made the "more popular" comment, "I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas! God bless America. Thank you, Jesus."


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In his 1970 song "God", Lennon sang that he did not believe in Jesus, the Bible, Buddha, the "Gita", nor the Beatles. Critics of Lennon's lyrics have focused on the line "imagine there's no heaven" from his 1971 song "Imagine". Lennon was murdered on 8 December 1980 by Mark David Chapman, a Christian who had been incensed by Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark, as well as "God" and "Imagine".


title: More popular than Jesus

text: In April 2010, the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" published an article marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' self-titled album (also known as the "White Album") which included comments on Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark. Part of the response read: "The remark ... which triggered deep indignation, mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll." Ringo Starr responded: "Didn't the Vatican say we were possibly Satanic, and they've still forgiven us? I think the Vatican's got more to talk about than the Beatles."


title: Commerce

text: Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, national or international economies. More specifically, commerce is not business, but rather the part of business which facilitates the movement and distribution of finished or unfinished but valuable goods and services from the producers to the end consumers on a large scale, as opposed to the sourcing of raw materials and manufacturing of those goods. Commerce is subtly different from trade as well, which is the final transaction, exchange or transfer of finished goods and services between a seller and an end consumer. Commerce not only includes trade as defined above, but also a series of transactions that happen between the producer and the seller with the help of the auxiliary services and means which facilitate such trade. These auxiliary services include transportation, communication, warehousing, insurance, banking, financial markets, advertising, packaging, the services of commercial agents and agencies, etc. In other words, commerce encompasses a wide array of political, economical, technological, logistical, legal, regulatory, social and cultural aspects of trade on a large scale. From a marketing perspective, commerce creates time and place utility by making goods and services available to the customers at the right place and at the right time by changing their location or placement. Described in this manner, trade is a part of commerce and commerce is a part of business.


title: Commerce

text: Commerce was a costly endeavor in the antiquities because of the risky nature of transportation, which restricted it to local markets. Commerce then expanded along with the improvement of transportation systems over time. In the middle ages, long-distance and large-scale commerce was still limited within continents. With the advent of the age of exploration and oceangoing ships, commerce took an international, trans-continental stature. Currently the reliability of international trans-oceanic shipping and mailing systems and the facility of the Internet has made commerce possible between cities, regions and countries situated anywhere in the world. In the 21st century, Internet-based electronic commerce (where financial information is transferred over Internet), and its subcategories such as wireless mobile commerce and social network-based social commerce have been and continue to get adopted widely.


title: Commerce

text: Legislative bodies and ministries or ministerial departments of commerce regulate, promote and manage domestic and foreign commercial activities within a country. International commerce can be regulated by bilateral treaties between countries. However, after the second world war and the rise of free trade among nations, multilateral arrangements such as the GATT and later the World Trade Organization became the principal systems regulating global commerce. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is another important organization which sets rules and resolves disputes in international commerce.


title: Commerce

text: The English-language word "commerce" has been derived from the Latin word "commercium", from "com" ("together") and "merx" ("merchandise").


title: Commerce

text: Historian Peter Watson and Ramesh Manickam date the history of long-distance commerce from 150,000 years ago.


title: Commerce

text: In historic times, the introduction of currency as a standardized money facilitated the exchange of goods and services.


title: Commerce

text: Banking systems developed in medieval Europe, facilitating financial transactions across national boundaries. Markets became a feature of town life, and were regulated by town authorities.


title: Muromachi period

text: The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ("Muromachi bakufu" or "Ashikaga bakufu"), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi "shōgun", Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kenmu Restoration (1333–1336) of imperial rule was brought to a close. The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun of this line, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of the capital in Kyoto by Oda Nobunaga.


title: Muromachi period

text: From a cultural perspective, the period can be divided into the Kitayama and Higashiyama cultures (later 15th – early 16th centuries).


title: Muromachi period

text: The early years from 1336 to 1392 of the Muromachi period are known as the "Nanboku-chō" or Northern and Southern Court period. This period is marked by the continued resistance of the supporters of Emperor Go-Daigo, the emperor behind the Kenmu Restoration. The Sengoku period or Warring States period, which begins in 1465, largely overlaps with the Muromachi period. The Muromachi period is succeeded by the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1600), the final phase of the Sengoku period.


title: Muromachi period

text: Emperor Go-Daigo's brief attempt to restore the imperial power in the Kenmu Restoration alienated the samurai class. Ashikaga Takauji obtained the samurai's strong support, and deposed Emperor Go-Daigo. In 1338 Takauji was proclaimed "shōgun" and established his government in Kyoto. However, Emperor Go-Daigo escaped from his confinement and revived his political power in Nara. The ensuing period of Ashikaga rule (1336–1573) was called Muromachi from the district of Kyoto in which its headquarters – the – were located by third "shōgun" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1378. What distinguished the Ashikaga shogunate from that of Kamakura was that, whereas Kamakura had existed in equilibrium with the imperial court, Ashikaga took over the remnants of the imperial government. Nevertheless, the Ashikaga shogunate was not as strong as that in Kamakura had been, and was greatly preoccupied with civil war. Not until the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (as "shōgun", 1368–94, and chancellor, 1394–1408) did a semblance of order emerge.


title: Muromachi period

text: Yoshimitsu allowed the constables, who had had limited powers during the Kamakura period, to become strong regional rulers, later called "daimyōs". In time, a balance of power evolved between the "shōgun" and the "daimyōs"; the three most prominent "daimyō" families rotated as deputies to the "shōgun" at Kyoto. Yoshimitsu was finally successful in reunifying the Northern and Southern courts in 1392, but, despite his promise of greater balance between the imperial lines, the Northern Court maintained control over the throne thereafter. The line of shoguns gradually weakened after Yoshimitsu and increasingly lost power to the "daimyōs" and other regional strongmen. The "shōgun"s influence on imperial succession waned, and the "daimyōs" could back their own candidates.


title: Muromachi period

text: In time, the Ashikaga family had its own succession problems, resulting finally in the Ōnin War (1467–77), which left Kyoto devastated and effectively ended the national authority of the "bakufu". The power vacuum that ensued launched a century of anarchy.


title: Muromachi period

text: The Japanese contact with the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) began when China was renewed during the Muromachi period after the Chinese sought support in suppressing Japanese pirates in coastal areas of China. Japanese pirates of this era and region were referred to as "wokou" by the Chinese (Japanese "wakō"). Wanting to improve relations with China and to rid Japan of the wokou threat, Yoshimitsu accepted a relationship with the Chinese that was to last for half a century. In 1401 he restarted the tribute system, describing himself in a letter to the Chinese Emperor as "Your subject, the King of Japan". Japanese wood, sulfur, copper ore, swords, and folding fans were traded for Chinese silk, porcelain, books, and coins, in what the Chinese considered tribute but the Japanese saw as profitable trade.


title: Muromachi period

text: During the time of the Ashikaga bakufu, a new national culture, called Muromachi culture, emerged from the bakufu headquarters in Kyoto to reach all levels of society, strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism.


title: Muromachi period

text: Zen played a central role in spreading not only religious teachings and practices but also art and culture, including influences derived from paintings of the Chinese Song (960–1279), Yuan, and Ming dynasties. The proximity of the imperial court to the bakufu resulted in a co-mingling of imperial family members, courtiers, daimyō, samurai, and Zen priests. Art of all kinds—architecture, literature, Noh drama, Kyōgen (comedy), poetry, sarugaku (folk entertainment), the tea ceremony, landscape gardening, and flower arranging—all flourished during Muromachi times.


title: Muromachi period

text: There was renewed interest in Shinto, which had quietly coexisted with Buddhism during the centuries of the latter's predominance. Shinto, which lacked its own scriptures and had few prayers, had, as a result of syncretic practices begun in the Nara period, widely adopted Shingon Buddhist rituals. Between the eighth and fourteenth centuries, Shintoism was nearly totally absorbed by Buddhism, becoming known as Ryōbu Shinto (Dual Shinto).


title: Muromachi period

text: The Mongol invasions in the late thirteenth century, however, evoked a national consciousness of the role of the kamikaze in defeating the enemy. Less than fifty years later (1339–43), Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293–1354), the chief commander of the Southern Court forces, wrote the "Jinnō Shōtōki". This chronicle emphasized the importance of maintaining the divine descent of the imperial line from Amaterasu to the current emperor, a condition that gave Japan a special national polity (kokutai). Besides reinforcing the concept of the emperor as a deity, the "Jinnōshōtōki" provided a Shinto view of history, which stressed the divine nature of all Japanese and the country's spiritual supremacy over China and India.


title: Muromachi period

text: Confucianism began to be recognized as the learning essential to daimyo in the Muromachi period. When Genju Keian, who returned from the Ming dynasty, traveled around Kyushu, he was invited by the Kikuchi clan in Higo Province and the Shimazu clan in Satsuma Province to give a lecture; and later, he established the Satsunan school (school of Neo-Confucianism in Satsuma). In Tosa, Baiken Minamimura, who lectured on Neo-Confucianism, became known as the founder of Nangaku (Neo-Confucianism in Tosa); in Hokuriku region, Nobutaka Kiyohara lectured on Confucianism for various daimyo such as the Hatakeyama clan in Noto Province, the Takeda clan in Wakasa Province, and the Asakura clan in Echizen Province.


title: Muromachi period

text: Meanwhile, in the eastern part of Japan, Norizane Uesugi reestablished the Ashikaga Gakko (Japan's oldest surviving academic institution) by adding a collection of books, so priests and warriors from all over the country gathered to learn. For the Ashikaga Gakko, the Gohojo clan in Odawara provided protection later; Francis Xavier, a missionary of the Society of Jesus, who propagated Christianity in Japan, described that "the Ashikaga Gakko is the biggest and most famous academy of Bando in Japan (the university of eastern Japan)." Shukyu Banri, a priest and a composer of Chinese-style poems, went down to Mino Province in the Onin War, and then left for Edo at Dokan Ota's invitation; he traveled all over the Kanto region, Echigo Province, and Hida Province. The above-mentioned Sesshu visited the Risshaku-ji Temple in Yamagata City, Dewa Province.


title: Muromachi period

text: In this period, local lords and local clans considered it indispensable to acquire skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic for the management of their territories. A growing number of land deeds were written by peasants, which means that literacy was widespread even among the commoner class. The Italian Jesuit, Alessandro Valignano ( 1539–1606 ), wrote that:"The people are white (not dark-skinned) and cultured ; even the common folk and peasants are well brought up and are so remarkably polite that they give the impression that they were trained at court . In this respect they are superior to other Eastern peoples but also to Europeans as well . They are very capable and intelligent , and the children are quick to grasp our lessons and instructions . They learn to read and write our language far more quickly and easily than children in Europe . The lower classes in Japan are not so coarse and ignorant as those in Europe ; on the contrary , they are generally intelligent , well brought up and quick to learn"."Teikin Orai" (Home Education Text Book), "Joe-shikimoku" (legal code of the Kamakura shogunate), and "Jitsugokyo" (a text for primary education) were widely used in shrines and temples as textbooks for the education of children of the warrior class. It was in the Sengoku Period that the following books were published: "Setsuyoshu" (a Japanese-language dictionary in iroha order) written by Soji MANJUYA, and "Ishotaizen" (The Complete Book of Medicine), a medical book in Ming's language, translated by Asai no Sozui, who was a merchant in Sakai City and a physician.


title: Muromachi period

text: The new Zen monasteries, with their Chinese background and the martial rulers in Kamakura sought to produce a unique cultural legacy to rival the Fujiwara tradition. Hence, Chinese painter-monks were frequently invited to the monasteries while Japanese monks travelled back and forth. This exchange led to the creation of Muromachi ink painting which often included Chinese themes, Chinese ink-washing techniques, fluid descriptive lines, dry brushes, and almost invisible facial features. Despite the initial creative restrictions, Japanese Zen ink painting soon achieved poetic and indigenous expression as elements were rearranged in a Japanese manner, and brushstrokes became gentle, fluid and more impulsive.


title: Muromachi period

text: The Ōnin War (1467–77) led to serious political fragmentation and obliteration of domains: a great struggle for land and power ensued among "bushi" chieftains and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century. Peasants rose against their landlords and samurai against their overlords as central control virtually disappeared. The imperial house was left impoverished, and the "bakufu" was controlled by contending chieftains in Kyoto. The provincial domains that emerged after the Ōnin War were smaller and easier to control. Many new small "daimyō" arose from among the samurai who had overthrown their great overlords. Border defenses were improved, and well fortified castle towns were built to protect the newly opened domains, for which land surveys were made, roads built, and mines opened. New house laws provided practical means of administration, stressing duties and rules of behavior. Emphasis was put on success in war, estate management, and finance. Threatening alliances were guarded against through strict marriage rules. Aristocratic society was overwhelmingly military in character. The rest of society was controlled in a system of vassalage. The "shōen" (feudal manors) were obliterated, and court nobles and absentee landlords were dispossessed. The new daimyō directly controlled the land, keeping the peasantry in permanent serfdom in exchange for protection.


title: Muromachi period

text: Most wars of the period were short and localized, although they occurred throughout Japan. By 1500 the entire country was engulfed in civil wars. Rather than disrupting the local economies, however, the frequent movement of armies stimulated the growth of transportation and communications, which in turn provided additional revenues from customs and tolls. To avoid such fees, commerce shifted to the central region, which no daimyō had been able to control, and to the Inland Sea. Economic developments and the desire to protect trade achievements brought about the establishment of merchant and artisan guilds.


title: Muromachi period

text: By the end of the Muromachi period, the first Europeans had arrived. The Portuguese landed in Tanegashima south of Kyūshū in 1543 and within two years were making regular port calls, initiating the century-long Nanban trade period. In 1551, the Navarrese Roman Catholic missionary Francis Xavier was one of the first Westerners who visited Japan. Francis described Japan as follows:


title: Muromachi period

text: The Spanish arrived in 1587, followed by the Dutch in 1609. The Japanese began to attempt studies of European civilization in depth, and new opportunities were presented for the economy, along with serious political challenges. European firearms, fabrics, glassware, clocks, tobacco, and other Western innovations were traded for Japanese gold and silver. Significant wealth was accumulated through trade, and lesser daimyō, especially in Kyūshū, greatly increased their power. Provincial wars became more deadly with the introduction of firearms, such as muskets and cannons, and greater use of infantry.


title: Muromachi period

text: Christianity affected Japan, largely through the efforts of the Jesuits, led first by the Spanish Francis Xavier (1506–1552), who arrived in Kagoshima in southern Kyūshū in 1549. Both daimyō and merchants seeking better trade arrangements as well as peasants were among the converts. By 1560 Kyoto had become another major area of missionary activity in Japan. In 1568 the port of Nagasaki, in northwestern Kyūshū, was established by a Christian daimyō and was turned over to Jesuit administration in 1579. By 1582 there were as many as 150,000 converts (two percent of the population) and 200 churches. But "bakufu" tolerance for this alien influence diminished as the country became more unified and openness decreased. Proscriptions against Christianity began in 1587 and outright persecutions in 1597. Although foreign trade was still encouraged, it was closely regulated, and by 1640, in the Edo period, the exclusion and suppression of Christianity became national policy.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: war film directed by Roland Joffé who co-wrote the script with Bruce Robinson. The story follows the Manhattan Project, the secret Allied endeavor to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The film is named after "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", the two bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: In September 1942, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Colonel Leslie Groves (Paul Newman) who oversaw construction of the Pentagon is assigned to head the ultra-secret Manhattan Project, to beat the Germans, who have a similar nuclear weapons program.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: Groves picks University of California, Berkeley, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz) to head the team of the project. Oppenheimer was familiar with northern New Mexico from his boyhood days when his family owned a cabin in the area. For the new research facility, he selects a remote location on top of a mesa adjacent to a valley called Los Alamos Canyon, northwest of Santa Fe.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: The different personalities of the military man Groves and the scientist Oppenheimer often clash in keeping the project on track. Oppenheimer in turn clashes with the other scientists, who debate whether their personal consciences should enter into the project or whether they should remain purely researchers, with personal feelings set aside.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: Nurse Kathleen Robinson (Laura Dern) and young physicist Michael Merriman (John Cusack) question what they are doing. Working with little protection from radiation during an experiment, Michael drops a radioactive component during an experiment dubbed Tickling the Dragon's Tail and retrieves it by hand in order to avoid disaster, but is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. In the base hospital, nurse Kathleen can only watch as he develops massive swelling and deformation before dying a miserable death days later. (This episode is drawn from an accident that happened to physicist Louis Slotin.)


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: While the technical problems are being solved, investigations are undertaken in order to thwart foreign espionage, especially from communist sympathizers who might be associated with socialist organizations. The snooping reveals that Oppenheimer has had a young mistress, Jean Tatlock (Natasha Richardson), and he is ordered by Groves to stop seeing her. After he breaks off their relationship without being able to reveal the reasons why, she is unable to cope with the heartache and is later found dead, apparently a suicide.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: As the project continues in multiple sites across America, technical problems and delays cause tensions and strife. To avoid a single point of failure plan, two separate bomb designs are implemented: a large, heavy plutonium bomb imploded using shaped charges ("Fat Man"), and an alternative design for a thin, less heavy uranium bomb triggered in a shotgun design ("Little Boy"). The bomb development culminates in a detonation in south-central New Mexico at the Trinity Site in the Alamogordo Desert (05:29:45 on July 16, 1945), where everyone watched in awe at the spectacle of the first mushroom cloud with roaring winds, even miles away.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: Most of the characters were real people and most of the events real happenings, with some theatrical license used in the film.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: The character of Michael Merriman (John Cusack) is a fictional composite of several people and is put into the film to provide a moral compass as the "common man". Part of the character is loosely based on the scientist Louis Slotin. Contrary to Merriman's death in the movie, Slotin's accident and death occurred after the dropping of the two bombs on Japan, and his early death was feared by some as karma after the event; see their respective articles. A very similar mishap happened less than two weeks after the Nagasaki bomb, claiming the life of Harry Daghlian. Both incidents occurred with the same plutonium core, which became known as the demon core.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: Even before Oppenheimer was chosen to be the lead scientist of the Manhattan Project, he was under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) due to suspected Communist sympathies. Once selected, the surveillance was constant: every single phone call was recorded and every contact with another person noted. After he was picked to head the laboratory, he only met with Tatlock one time, in mid-June 1943, where she told him that she still loved him and wanted to be with him. After spending that night together, he never saw her again. She committed suicide six months after their meeting.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: Filming took place in the fall of 1988 mainly outside Durango, Mexico, where the Los Alamos research facility was re-created. The re-creation of the Los Alamos laboratory entailed 35 buildings and cost over $2 million to construct in 1988.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: The film includes a musical score by long-time composer Ennio Morricone. The entire score and extra music were released in 2011 by La-La Land Records. The 2-CD release has source cues, portions of others, and alternate takes that were dropped from the final cut of the film. Produced by Dan Goldwasser and mastered by Mike Matessino. The CD includes liner notes by film music writer Daniel Schweiger. Only 3,000 copies were released.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: The film has been criticized for distortion of history for dramatic effect, and miscasting in its choices of Paul Newman for the role of General Groves, and Dwight Schultz for the role of Oppenheimer. Noted critic Roger Ebert felt the film lackluster, giving it 1 and a 1/2 stars, and felt that "The story of the birth of the bomb is one of high drama, but it was largely intellectual drama, as the scientists asked themselves, in conversations and nightmares, what terror they were unleashing on the Earth. "Fat Man and Little Boy" reduces their debates to the childish level of Hollywood stereotyping." The film holds a 48% rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews.


title: Fat Man and Little Boy

text: The film made under $4 million on its original release. The film was entered into the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: Lady Victoria Frederica Isabella Hervey (; born 6 October 1976) is an English model, socialite, aristocrat, and former "It girl". She is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, half-sister of the 7th Marquess, and sister of the 8th Marquess and Lady Isabella Hervey.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: Lady Victoria is the eldest child of the 6th Marquess of Bristol and his third wife, Yvonne Marie Sutton, and was born on her father's 61st birthday, 6 October 1976. She is the elder sister of the incumbent 8th Marquess of Bristol and Lady Isabella Hervey. Her older half-brothers were John Hervey, 7th Marquess of Bristol, and Lord Nicholas Hervey, both of whom are deceased. Leka, Crown Prince of Albania, stood sponsor as one of her godfathers.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: For the first two years of her life Hervey lived at Ickworth House, the family seat in Suffolk, before her parents went into tax exile in Monaco. At the time of her father's death in 1985, the family was living in an apartment at 1E Formentor, Avenue Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo, but still employing a butler and a nanny.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: She was educated at Benenden School, and spent a gap year in Florence before working at advertising agencies in London.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: After Hervey turned down a place to read French and History of Art at Bristol University, her mother stopped her allowances and she reluctantly became a receptionist for producer Michael Winner.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: Hervey became a part-time catwalk model in a career move she hoped would take her into television presenting, but with her statuesque 6-foot height she took to the career full-time, ultimately modelling for Christian Dior. In April 2000, she and friend Jayne Blight opened Knightsbridge fashion boutique "Akademi". Frequented by Victoria Beckham, Meg Mathews and Martine McCutcheon, it closed in 2001 with debts estimated at £350,000. Hervey was reportedly only £20 out of pocket by the business failure but in the year following the closure, Hervey owed a series of personal debts.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: In 2012, it was reported that Hervey had taken the position as Events and Society Editor for "The Untitled Magazine", a bi-annual magazine about fashion and entertainment.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: In December 2003, Hervey secured a small part in the 2004 American film "RX" opposite Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks) as a waitress in a diner.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: In 2001, Hervey made a cameo appearance in BBC sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous" in the first episode of series four. In October 2004, Hervey appeared on channel Five's"The Farm". In July 2006, she appeared in the ITV show "Love Island". On 18 September 2007, she appeared on ITV's "Don't Call Me Stupid" programme, where she was asked to learn about the Labour Party Movement with George Galloway. In February 2015, Hervey, an experienced skier, appeared on Channel 4's "The Jump" where she participated on the condition her dog joined her in Austria.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: In 2016 Hervey's young adult book, "Lady in Waiting", was published by Finch. The novel is semi-autobiographical and concerns life at a girl's boarding school.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: Hervey lives in Los Angeles. She has had relationships with several well-known people, including Prince Andrew and Boyzone member Shane Lynch.


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: In 2003, Hervey attracted controversy after saying, "It's so bad being homeless in winter. They should go somewhere warm like the Caribbean where they can eat fresh fish all day."


title: Lady Victoria Hervey

text: In January 2022 Hervey said in an interview that she felt that Ghislaine Maxwell had used her as "bait", to attract women to Jeffrey Epstein's parties. She later suggested that a photo showing Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre had been faked with body doubles.


title: Virginie Ledoyen

text: Virginie Fernández (born 15 November 1976), known by her stage name Virginie Ledoyen (), is a French actress who has appeared in French, British and American films.


title: Virginie Ledoyen

text: Ledoyen was born in Aubervilliers, the daughter of Olga, a restaurateur, and Bernard Fernández, a merchant who sold cleaning products and knives. Her paternal grandfather was Spanish. She was a print model from the age of two and later took on the stage name "Ledoyen" after the maiden name of her maternal grandmother, who was a stage actress.


title: Virginie Ledoyen

text: Ledoyen's film breakthrough came with "A Single Girl" (1995) (stylized "la fille seule"), for which she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. She also received two César Award nominations for "Les marmottes" (1993) and "L'eau froide" (1994). Outside France, her best-known role is in "The Beach" (2000). In the fall of 2000, she signed a contract as a spokesmodel with the cosmetics company L'Oréal. She was featured alongside two models, Laetitia Casta and Noémie Lenoir.


title: Virginie Ledoyen

text: On 29 September 2001, Ledoyen gave birth to her first child, a girl named Lila, with production designer Louis Soubrier, whom she met on the set of "La fille seule" in 1995. She was in a short-lived marriage with Iain Rogers, a film director, from 2006 to 2007. From 2007 to 2015, she was in a relationship with actor , whose brother was her co-star in "The Valet". Ledoyen and Elmaleh have a son, Isaac, born in July 2010, and a daughter, Amalia, born in April 2014.


title: Social stigma

text: Social stigma is the disapproval of, or discrimination against, an individual or group based on perceived characteristics that serve to distinguish them from other members of a society. Social stigmas are commonly related to culture, gender, race, socioeconomic class, age, sexual orientation, body image, physical disability, intelligence or lack thereof, and health. Some stigma may be obvious, while others are known as concealable stigmas that must be revealed through disclosure. Stigma can also be against oneself, stemming from negatively viewed personal attributes in a way that can result in a "spoiled identity" (i.e., self-stigma).


title: Social stigma

text: Stigma (plural stigmas or "stigmata") is a Greek word that in its origins referred to a type of marking or the tattoo that was cut or burned into the skin of people with criminal records, slaves, or those seen as traitors in order to visibly identify them as supposedly blemished or morally polluted persons. These individuals were to be avoided particularly in public places.


title: Social stigma

text: Social stigmas can occur in many different forms. The most common deal with culture, gender, race, religion, illness and disease. Individuals who are stigmatized usually feel different and devalued by others.


title: Social stigma

text: Stigma may also be described as a label that associates a person to a set of unwanted characteristics that form a stereotype. It is also affixed. Once people identify and label one's differences, others will assume that is just how things are and the person will remain stigmatized until the stigmatizing attribute is undetectable. A considerable amount of generalization is required to create groups, meaning that people will put someone in a general group regardless of how well the person actually fits into that group. However, the attributes that society selects differ according to time and place. What is considered out of place in one society could be the norm in another. When society categorizes individuals into certain groups the labeled person is subjected to status loss and discrimination. Society will start to form expectations about those groups once the cultural stereotype is secured.


title: Social stigma

text: Stigma may affect the behavior of those who are stigmatized. Those who are stereotyped often start to act in ways that their stigmatizers expect of them. It not only changes their behavior, but it also shapes their emotions and beliefs. Members of stigmatized social groups often face prejudice that causes depression (i.e. deprejudice). These stigmas put a person's social identity in threatening situations, such as low self-esteem. Because of this, identity theories have become highly researched. Identity threat theories can go hand-in-hand with labeling theory.


title: Social stigma

text: Members of stigmatized groups start to become aware that they aren't being treated the same way and know they are likely being discriminated against. Studies have shown that "by 10 years of age, most children are aware of cultural stereotypes of different groups in society, and children who are members of stigmatized groups are aware of cultural types at an even younger age."


title: Social stigma

text: French sociologist Émile Durkheim was the first to explore stigma as a social phenomenon in 1895. He wrote:


title: Social stigma

text: "Imagine a society of saints, a perfect cloister of exemplary individuals. Crimes or deviance, properly so-called, will there be unknown; but faults, which appear venial to the layman, will there create the same scandal that the ordinary offense does in ordinary consciousnesses. If then, this society has the power to judge and punish, it will define these acts as criminal (or deviant) and will treat them as such."


title: Social stigma

text: Erving Goffman described stigma as a phenomenon whereby an individual with an attribute which is deeply discredited by their society is rejected as a result of the attribute. Goffman saw stigma as a process by which the reaction of others spoils normal identity.


title: Social stigma

text: More specifically, he explained that what constituted this attribute would change over time. "It should be seen that a language of relationships, not attributes, is really needed. An attribute that stigmatizes one type of possessor can confirm the usualness of another, and therefore is neither credible nor discreditable as a thing in itself."


title: Social stigma

text: In Goffman's theory of social stigma, a stigma is an attribute, behavior, or reputation which is socially discrediting in a particular way: it causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an undesirable, rejected stereotype rather than in an accepted, normal one. Goffman defined stigma as a special kind of gap between "virtual social identity" and "actual social identity":


title: Social stigma

text: The wise normals are not merely those who are in some sense accepting of the stigma; they are, rather, "those whose special situation has made them intimately privy to the secret life of the stigmatized individual and sympathetic with it, and who find themselves accorded a measure of acceptance, a measure of courtesy membership in the clan." That is, they are accepted "by" the stigmatized as "honorary members" of the stigmatized group. "Wise persons are the marginal men before whom the individual with a fault need feel no shame nor exert self-control, knowing that in spite of his failing he will be seen as an ordinary other," Goffman notes that the wise may in certain social situations also bear the stigma with respect to other normals: that is, they may also be stigmatized for being wise. An example is a parent of a homosexual; another is a white woman who is seen socializing with a black man (assuming social milieus in which homosexuals and dark-skinned people are stigmatized).


title: Social stigma

text: A 2012 study showed empirical support for the existence of the own, the wise, and normals as separate groups; but the wise appeared in two forms: active wise and passive wise. The active wise encouraged challenging stigmatization and educating stigmatizers, but the passive wise did not.


title: Social stigma

text: Goffman emphasizes that the stigma relationship is one between an individual and a social setting with a given set of expectations; thus, everyone at different times will play both roles of stigmatized and stigmatizer (or, as he puts it, "normal"). Goffman gives the example that "some jobs in America cause holders without the expected college education to conceal this fact; other jobs, however, can lead to the few of their holders who have a higher education to keep this a secret, lest they are marked as failures and outsiders. Similarly, a middle-class boy may feel no compunction in being seen going to the library; a professional criminal, however, writes [about keeping his library visits secret]." He also gives the example of blacks being stigmatized among whites, and whites being stigmatized among blacks.


title: Social stigma

text: Individuals actively cope with stigma in ways that vary across stigmatized groups, across individuals within stigmatized groups, and within individuals across time and situations.


title: Social stigma

text: The stigmatized are ostracized, devalued, scorned, shunned and ignored. They experience discrimination in the realms of employment and housing. Perceived prejudice and discrimination is also associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes. Young people who experience stigma associated with mental health difficulties may face negative reactions from their peer group. Those who perceive themselves to be members of a stigmatized group, whether it is obvious to those around them or not, often experience psychological distress and many view themselves contemptuously.


title: Social stigma

text: Although the experience of being stigmatized may take a toll on self-esteem, academic achievement, and other outcomes, many people with stigmatized attributes have high self-esteem, perform at high levels, are happy and appear to be quite resilient to their negative experiences.


title: Social stigma

text: There are also "positive stigma": it is possible to be too rich, or too smart. This is noted by Goffman (1963:141) in his discussion of leaders, who are subsequently given license to deviate from some behavioral norms because they have contributed far above the expectations of the group. This can result in social stigma.


title: Social stigma

text: From the perspective of the stigmatizer, stigmatization involves threat, aversion and sometimes the depersonalization of others into stereotypic caricatures. Stigmatizing others can serve several functions for an individual, including self-esteem enhancement, control enhancement, and anxiety buffering, through "downward-comparison"—comparing oneself to less fortunate others can increase one's own subjective sense of well-being and therefore boost one's self-esteem.


title: Social stigma

text: 21st-century social psychologists consider stigmatizing and stereotyping to be a normal consequence of people's cognitive abilities and limitations, and of the social information and experiences to which they are exposed.


title: Social stigma

text: Current views of stigma, from the perspectives of both the stigmatizer and the stigmatized person, consider the process of stigma to be highly situationally specific, dynamic, complex and nonpathological.


title: Social stigma

text: "All societies will always stigmatize some conditions and some behaviors because doing so provides for group solidarity by delineating "outsiders" from "insiders"".


title: Social stigma

text: Falk describes stigma based on two categories, "existential stigma" and "achieved stigma". He defines existential stigma as "stigma deriving from a condition which the target of the stigma either did not cause or over which he has little control." He defines "Achieved Stigma" as "stigma that is earned because of conduct and/or because they contributed heavily to attaining the stigma in question."


title: Social stigma

text: Falk concludes that "we and all societies will always stigmatize some condition and some behavior because doing so provides for group solidarity by delineating 'outsiders' from 'insiders'". Stigmatization, at its essence, is a challenge to one's humanity- for both the "stigmatized" person and the "stigmatizer". The majority of stigma researchers have found the process of stigmatization has a long history and is cross-culturally ubiquitous.


title: Social stigma

text: In this model stigmatization is also contingent on "access to social, economic, and political power that allows the identification of differences, construction of stereotypes, the separation of labeled persons into distinct groups, and the full execution of disapproval, rejection, exclusion, and discrimination." Subsequently, in this model, the term stigma is applied when labeling, stereotyping, disconnection, status loss, and discrimination all exist within a power situation that facilitates stigma to occur.


title: Social stigma

text: Identifying which human differences are salient, and therefore worthy of labeling, is a social process. There are two primary factors to examine when considering the extent to which this process is a social one. The first issue is that significant oversimplification is needed to create groups. The broad groups of black and white, homosexual and heterosexual, the sane and the mentally ill; and young and old are all examples of this. Secondly, the differences that are socially judged to be relevant differ vastly according to time and place. An example of this is the emphasis that was put on the size of the forehead and faces of individuals in the late 19th century—which was believed to be a measure of a person's criminal nature.


title: Social stigma

text: The second component of this model centers on the linking of labeled differences with stereotypes. Goffman's 1963 work made this aspect of stigma prominent and it has remained so ever since. This process of applying certain stereotypes to differentiated groups of individuals has attracted a large amount of attention and research in recent decades.


title: Social stigma

text: Thirdly, linking negative attributes to groups facilitates separation into "us" and "them". Seeing the labeled group as fundamentally different causes stereotyping with little hesitation. "Us" and "them" implies that the labeled group is slightly less human in nature and at the extreme not human at all.


title: Social stigma

text: The fourth component of stigmatization in this model includes "status loss and discrimination". Many definitions of stigma do not include this aspect, however, these authors believe that this loss occurs inherently as individuals are "labeled, set apart, and linked to undesirable characteristics." The members of the labeled groups are subsequently disadvantaged in the most common group of life chances including income, education, mental well-being, housing status, health, and medical treatment.


title: Social stigma

text: Thus, stigmatization by the majorities, the powerful, or the "superior" leads to the Othering of the minorities, the powerless, and the "inferior". Whereby the stigmatized individuals become disadvantaged due to the ideology created by "the self," which is the opposing force to "the Other." As a result, the others become socially excluded and those in power reason the exclusion based on the original characteristics that led to the stigma.


title: Social stigma

text: The authors also emphasize the role of power (social, economic, and political power) in stigmatization. While the use of power is clear in some situations, in others it can become masked as the power differences are less stark. An extreme example of a situation in which the power role was explicitly clear was the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis. On the other hand, an example of a situation in which individuals of a stigmatized group have "stigma-related processes" occurring would be the inmates of a prison. It is imaginable that each of the steps described above would occur regarding the inmates' thoughts about the guards. However, this situation cannot involve true stigmatization, according to this model, because the prisoners do not have the economic, political, or social power to act on these thoughts with any serious discriminatory consequences.


title: Social stigma

text: Sociologist Matthew W. Hughey explains that prior research on stigma has emphasized individual and group attempts to reduce stigma by "passing as normal", by shunning the stigmatized, or through selective disclosure of stigmatized attributes. Yet, some actors may embrace particular markings of stigma (e.g.: social markings like dishonor or select physical dysfunctions and abnormalities) as signs of moral commitment and/or cultural and political authenticity. Hence, Hughey argues that some actors do not simply desire to "pass into normal" but may actively pursue a stigmatized identity formation process in order to experience themselves as causal agents in their social environment. Hughey calls this phenomenon "stigma allure".


title: Social stigma

text: While often incorrectly attributed to Goffman, the "six dimensions of stigma" were not his invention. They were developed to augment Goffman's two levels – the discredited and the discreditable. Goffman considered individuals whose stigmatizing attributes are not immediately evident. In that case, the individual can encounter two distinct social atmospheres. In the first, he is "discreditable"—his stigma has yet to be revealed but may be revealed either intentionally by him (in which case he will have some control over how) or by some factor, he cannot control. Of course, it also might be successfully concealed; Goffman called this "passing". In this situation, the analysis of stigma is concerned only with the behaviors adopted by the stigmatized individual to manage his identity: the concealing and revealing of information.


title: Social stigma

text: In the second atmosphere, he is "discredited"—his stigma has been revealed and thus it affects not only his behavior but the behavior of others. Jones et al. (1984) added the "six dimensions" and correlate them to Goffman's two types of stigma, discredited and discreditable.


title: Social stigma

text: In "Unraveling the contexts of stigma", authors Campbell and Deacon describe Goffman's universal and historical forms of Stigma as the following.


title: Social stigma

text: Stigma occurs when an individual is identified as deviant, linked with negative stereotypes that engender prejudiced attitudes, which are acted upon in discriminatory behavior. Goffman illuminated how stigmatized people manage their "Spoiled identity" (meaning the stigma disqualifies the stigmatized individual from full social acceptance) before audiences of normals. He focused on stigma, not as a fixed or inherent attribute of a person, but rather as the experience and meaning of difference.


title: Social stigma

text: Gerhard Falk expounds upon Goffman's work by redefining "deviant" as "others who deviate from the expectations of a group" "and" by categorizing deviance into two types:


title: Social stigma

text: Communication is involved in creating, maintaining, and diffusing stigmas, and enacting stigmatization. The model of stigma communication explains how and why particular content choices (marks, labels, peril, and responsibility) can create stigmas and encourage their diffusion. A recent experiment using health alerts tested the model of stigma communication, finding that content choices indeed predicted stigma beliefs, intentions to further diffuse these messages, and agreement with regulating infected persons' behaviors.


title: Social stigma

text: Stigma, though powerful and enduring, is not inevitable, and can be challenged. There are two important aspects to challenging stigma: challenging the stigmatization on the part of stigmatizers and challenging the internalized stigma of the stigmatized. To challenge stigmatization, Campbell et al. 2005 summarise three main approaches.


title: Social stigma

text: In relation to challenging the internalized stigma of the stigmatized, Paulo Freire's theory of critical consciousness is particularly suitable. Cornish provides an example of how sex workers in Sonagachi, a red light district in India, have effectively challenged internalized stigma by establishing that they are respectable women, who admirably take care of their families, and who deserve rights like any other worker. This study argues that it is not only the force of the rational argument that makes the challenge to the stigma successful, but concrete evidence that sex workers can achieve valued aims, and are respected by others.


title: Social stigma

text: Stigmatized groups often harbor cultural tools to respond to stigma and to create a positive self-perception among their members. For example, advertising professionals have been shown to suffer from negative portrayal and low approval rates. However, the advertising industry collectively maintains narratives describing how advertisement is a positive and socially valuable endeavor, and advertising professionals draw on these narratives to respond to stigma.


title: Social stigma

text: In 2008, an article by Hudson coined the term "organizational stigma" which was then further developed by another theory building article by Devers and colleagues. This literature brought the concept of stigma to the organizational level, considering how organizations might be considered as deeply flawed and cast away by audiences in the same way individuals would. Hudson differentiated core-stigma (a stigma related to the very nature of the organization) and event-stigma (an isolated occurrence which fades away with time). A large literature has debated how organizational stigma relate to other constructs in the literature on social evaluations. A 2020 book by Roulet reviews this literature and disentangle the different concepts in particular differentiating stigma, dirty work, scandals and exploring their positive implications.


title: Social stigma

text: The research was undertaken to determine the effects of social stigma primarily focuses on disease-associated stigmas. Disabilities, psychiatric disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases are among the diseases currently scrutinized by researchers. In studies involving such diseases, both positive and negative effects of social stigma have been discovered.


title: Social stigma

text: Recent research suggest that addressing perceived and enacted stigma in clinical settings is critical to ensuring delivery of high-quality patient-centered care. Specifically, perceived stigma by patients was associated with additional more days of poor physical or mental health. Moreover, perceived stigma in healthcare settings was associated with higher odds of reporting a depressive disorder. Among other findings, individuals who were married, younger, had higher income, had college degrees, and were employed reported significantly fewer poor physical and mental health days and had lower odds of self-reported depressive disorder. A complementary study conducted in New York City (as compared to nationwide), found similar outcomes. The researchers' objectives were to assess rates of perceived stigma in health care (clinical) settings reported by racially diverse New York City residents and to examine if this perceived stigma is associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes. They found that perceived stigma was associated with poorer healthcare access, depression, diabetes, and poor overall general health.


title: Social stigma

text: Members of stigmatized groups may have lower self-esteem than those of nonstigmatized groups. A test could not be taken on the overall self-esteem of different races. Researchers would have to take into account whether these people are optimistic or pessimistic, whether they are male or female and what kind of place they grew up in.


title: Social stigma

text: Over the last two decades, many studies have reported that African Americans show higher global self-esteem than whites even though, as a group, African Americans tend to receive poorer outcomes in many areas of life and experience significant discrimination and stigma.


title: Social stigma

text: Empirical research on the stigma associated with mental disorders, pointed to a surprising attitude of the general public. Those who were told that mental disorders had a genetic basis were more prone to increase their social distance from the mentally ill, and also to assume that the ill were dangerous individuals, in contrast with those members of the general public who were told that the illnesses could be explained by social and environmental factors. Furthermore, those informed of the genetic basis were also more likely to stigmatize the entire family of the ill. Although the specific social categories that become stigmatized can vary over time and place, the three basic forms of stigma (physical deformity, poor personal traits, and tribal outgroup status) are found in most cultures and eras, leading some researchers to hypothesize that the tendency to stigmatize may have evolutionary roots. The impact of the stigma is significant, leading many individuals to not seek out treatment.


title: Social stigma

text: Currently, several researchers believe that mental disorders are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Therefore, this biological rationale suggests that individuals struggling with a mental illness do not have control over the origin of the disorder. Much like cancer or another type of physical disorder, persons suffering from mental disorders should be supported and encouraged to seek help. The Disability Rights Movement recognises that while there is considerable stigma towards people with physical disabilities, the negative social stigma surrounding mental illness is significantly worse, with those suffering being perceived to have control of their disabilities and being responsible for causing them. "Furthermore, research respondents are less likely to pity persons with mental illness, instead of reacting to the psychiatric disability with anger and believing that help is not deserved." Although there are effective mental health interventions available across the globe, many persons with mental illnesses do not seek out the help that they need. Only 59.6% of individuals with a mental illness, including conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, reported receiving treatment in 2011. Reducing the negative stigma surrounding mental disorders may increase the probability of affected individuals seeking professional help from a psychiatrist or a non-psychiatric physician. How particular mental disorders are represented in the media can vary, as well as the stigma associated with each. On the social media platform, YouTube, depression is commonly presented as a condition that is caused by biological or environmental factors, is more chronic than short-lived, and different than sadness, all of which may contribute to how people think about depression.


title: Social stigma

text: In the music industry, specifically in the genre of hip-hop or rap, those who speak out on mental illness are heavily criticized. However, according to an article by The Huffington Post, there's a significant increase in rappers who are breaking their silence on depression and anxiety.


title: Social stigma

text: Throughout history, addiction has largely been seen as a moral failing or character flaw, as opposed to an issue of public health. Substance use has been found to be more stigmatized than smoking, obesity, and mental illness. Research has shown stigma to be a barrier to treatment-seeking behaviors among individuals with addiction, creating a "treatment gap". A systematic review of all epidemiological studies on treatment rates of people with alcohol use disorders found that over 80% had not accessed any treatment for their disorder. The study also found that the treatment gap was larger in low and lower-middle-income countries.


title: Social stigma

text: Research shows that the words used to talk about addiction can contribute to stigmatization, and that the commonly used terms of "abuse" & "abuser" actually increase stigma. Behavioral addictions (i.e. gambling, sex, etc.) are found to be more likely to be attributed to character flaws than substance-use addictions. Stigma is reduced when Substance Use Disorders are portrayed as treatable conditions. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has been used effectively to help people to reduce shame associated with cultural stigma around substance use treatment.


title: Social stigma

text: Methamphetamine is a drug that has received strong stigma towards. An Australian national population study have shown that the proportion of Australians who nominated methamphetamine as a "drug problem" increased between 2001-2019. The epidemiological study provided evidence that levels of under-reporting have increased over the period, which coincided with the deployment of public health campaigns on the dangers of ice that had stigmatising elements that portrayal of persons who used the drugs in a negative way. The level of under-reporting of methamphetamine use is strongly associated with increasing negative attitudes towards their use over the same period.


title: Social stigma

text: Recipients of public assistance programs are often scorned as unwilling to work. The intensity of poverty stigma is positively correlated with increasing inequality. As inequality increases, societal propensity to stigmatize increases. This is in part, a result of societal norms of reciprocity which is the expectation that people earn what they receive rather than receiving assistance in the form of what people tend to view as a gift. Poverty is often perceived as a result of failures and poor choices rather than the result of socioeconomic structures that suppress individual abilities. Disdain for the impoverished can be traced back to its roots in Anglo-American culture where poor people have been blamed and ostracized for their misfortune for hundreds of years. The concept of deviance is at the bed rock of stigma towards the poor. Deviants are people that break important norms of society that everyone shares. In the case of poverty it is breaking the norm of reciprocity that paves the path for stigmatization.


title: Social stigma

text: Social stigma is prevalent towards recipients of public assistance programs. This includes programs frequently utilized by families struggling with poverty such as Head Start and AFDC (Aid To Families With Dependent Children). The value of self-reliance is often at the center of feelings of shame and the fewer people value self reliance the less stigma effects them psychologically. Stigma towards welfare recipients has been proven to increase passivity and dependency in poor people and has further solidified their status and feelings of inferiority. Caseworkers frequently treat recipients of welfare disrespectfully and make assumptions about deviant behavior and reluctance to work. Many single mothers cited stigma as the primary reason they wanted to exit welfare as quickly as possible. They often feel the need to conceal food stamps to escape judgement associated with welfare programs. Stigma is a major factor contributing to the duration and breadth of poverty in developed societies which largely affects single mothers. Recipients of public assistance are viewed as objects of the community rather than members allowing for them to be perceived as enemies of the community which is how stigma enters collective thought. Amongst single mothers in poverty, lack of health care benefits is one of their greatest challenges in terms of exiting poverty. Traditional values of self reliance increase feelings of shame amongst welfare recipients making them more susceptible to being stigmatized.


title: Social stigma

text: In Taiwan, strengthening the psychiatric rehabilitation system has been one of the primary goals of the Department of Health since 1985. Unfortunately, this endeavor has not been successful. It was hypothesized that one of the barriers was social stigma towards the mentally ill. Accordingly, a study was conducted to explore the attitudes of the general population towards patients with mental disorders. A survey method was utilized on 1,203 subjects nationally. The results revealed that the general population held high levels of benevolence, tolerance on rehabilitation in the community, and nonsocial restrictiveness. Essentially, benevolent attitudes were favoring the acceptance of rehabilitation in the community. It could then be inferred that the belief (held by the residents of Taiwan) in treating the mentally ill with high regard, and the progress of psychiatric rehabilitation may be hindered by factors other than social stigma.


title: Social stigma

text: Epilepsy, a common neurological disorder characterised by recurring seizures, is associated with various social stigmas. Chung-yan Guardian Fong and Anchor Hung conducted a study in Hong Kong which documented public attitudes towards individuals with epilepsy. Of the 1,128 subjects interviewed, only 72.5% of them considered epilepsy to be acceptable; 11.2% would not let their children play with others with epilepsy; 32.2% would not allow their children to marry persons with epilepsy; additionally, some employers (22.5% of them) would terminate an employment contract after an epileptic seizure occurred in an employee with unreported epilepsy. Suggestions were made that more effort be made to improve public awareness of, attitude toward, and understanding of epilepsy through school education and epilepsy-related organizations.


title: Social stigma

text: In the early 21st century, technology has a large impact on the lives of people in multiple countries and has shaped social norms. Many people own a television, computer, and a smartphone. The media can be helpful with keeping people up to date on news and world issues and it is very influential on people. Because it is so influential sometimes the portrayal of minority groups affects attitudes of other groups toward them. Much media coverage has to do with other parts of the world. A lot of this coverage has to do with war and conflict, which people may relate to any person belonging from that country. There is a tendency to focus more on the positive behavior of one's own group and the negative behaviors of other groups. This promotes negative thoughts of people belonging to those other groups, reinforcing stereotypical beliefs.


title: Social stigma

text: "Viewers seem to react to violence with emotions such as anger and contempt. They are concerned about the integrity of the social order and show disapproval of others. Emotions such as sadness and fear are shown much more rarely." (Unz, Schwab & Winterhoff-Spurk, 2008, p. 141)


title: Social stigma

text: In a study testing the effects of stereotypical advertisements on students, 75 high school students viewed magazine advertisements with stereotypical female images such as a woman working on a holiday dinner, while 50 others viewed nonstereotypical images such as a woman working in a law office. These groups then responded to statements about women in a "neutral" photograph. In this photo, a woman was shown in a casual outfit not doing any obvious task. The students that saw the stereotypical images tended to answer the questionnaires with more stereotypical responses in 6 of the 12 questionnaire statements. This suggests that even brief exposure to stereotypical ads reinforces stereotypes. (Lafky, Duffy, Steinmaus & Berkowitz, 1996)


title: Social stigma

text: The aforementioned stigmas (associated with their respective diseases) propose effects that these stereotypes have on individuals. Whether effects be negative or positive in nature, 'labeling' people causes a significant change in individual perception (of persons with the disease). Perhaps a mutual understanding of stigma, achieved through education, could eliminate social stigma entirely.


title: Social stigma

text: Laurence J. Coleman first adapted Erving Goffman's (1963) social stigma theory to gifted children, providing a rationale for why children may hide their abilities and present alternate identities to their peers. The stigma of giftedness theory was further elaborated by Laurence J. Coleman and Tracy L. Cross in their book entitled, "Being Gifted in School", which is a widely cited reference in the field of gifted education. In the chapter on Coping with Giftedness, the authors expanded on the theory first presented in a 1988 article. According to Google Scholar, this article has been cited over 300 times in the academic literature (as of 2022).


title: Social stigma

text: Coleman and Cross were the first to identify intellectual giftedness as a stigmatizing condition and they created a model based on Goffman's (1963) work, research with gifted students, and a book that was written and edited by 20 teenage, gifted individuals. Being gifted sets students apart from their peers and this difference interferes with full social acceptance. Varying expectations that exist in the different social contexts which children must navigate, and the value judgments that may be assigned to the child result in the child's use of social coping strategies to manage his or her identity. Unlike other stigmatizing conditions, giftedness is unique because it can lead to praise or ridicule depending on the audience and circumstances.


title: Social stigma

text: Gifted children learn when it is safe to display their giftedness and when they should hide it to better fit in with a group. These observations led to the development of the Information Management Model that describes the process by which children decide to employ coping strategies to manage their identities. In situations where the child feels different, she or he may decide to manage the information that others know about him or her. Coping strategies include disidentification with giftedness, attempting to maintain low visibility, or creating a high-visibility identity (playing a stereotypical role associated with giftedness). These ranges of strategies are called the Continuum of Visibility.


title: Social stigma

text: Arikan found that a stigmatising attitude to psychiatric patients is associated with narcissistic personality traits.


title: Social stigma

text: While abortion is very common throughout the world, people may choose not to disclose their use of such services, in part due to the stigma associated with having had an abortion. Keeping abortion experiences secret has been found to be associated with increased isolation and psychological distress. Abortion providers are also subject to stigma.


title: Social stigma

text: Cultural norms can prevent displays of prejudice as such views are stigmatized and thus people will express non-prejudiced views even if they believe otherwise (preference falsification). However, if the stigma against such views is lessened, people will be more willing to express prejudicial sentiments. For example, following the 2008 economic crisis, anti-immigration sentiment seemingly increased amongst the US population when in reality the level of sentiment remained the same and instead it simply became more acceptable to openly express opposition to immigration.


title: Soap MacTavish

text: John "Soap" MacTavish is a fictional character in the "Call of Duty" story arc "Modern Warfare". He first appears as a main playable character in the 2007 video game "" where he is part of the 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) regiment as a sniper and demolitions expert. He later appears in the sequel "", released in November 2009, as both an NPC and as one of the playable characters. He also appeared in "", released in November 2011. The reboot version of Soap was briefly mentioned in the 2019 reboot title "" and its battle royale companion mode "", where he is featured as a playable character, before making his full debut in . Soap was well received by critics and became one of the most popular "Call of Duty" characters.


title: Soap MacTavish

text: John "Soap" MacTavish plays a key role in the storyline of "" where he is on the front lines of the fight against the Ultra-nationalists as part of the SAS, more specifically Captain Price's Bravo Team. In "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare", the player experiences the storyline through the eyes of Soap. However, certain missions were played from a different characters perspective. Soap appears to be modeled after the character "Lake" in the 2003 movie "Tears of the Sun".


title: Soap MacTavish

text: The later games present MacTavish as a non-playable character (NPC) that the playable character fights alongside. However, in "" the player takes control of MacTavish in the final three missions. In the final game in the series, MacTavish appears as a playable character only for the first mission then reverts to an NPC for the remainder of the storyline.


title: Soap MacTavish

text: MacTavish is later killed in action during the course of "" after an explosion where he experiences massive blood loss, whilst on a mission to assassinate Vladimir Makarov, a continuing antagonist of the series appearing in all three titles. MacTavish is voiced by Scottish actor Kevin McKidd in "Modern Warfare 2" and "Modern Warfare 3".


title: Soap MacTavish

text: The developers of "" added a DLC (Downloadable Content Package) which allowed the player to play as the iconic character called the Soap Legend Pack which was released in April 2014.


title: Soap MacTavish

text: In the 2019 reboot title "", Soap was first teased during the ending of the single player campaign as a recruit for Task Force 141. In a story cinematic for the battle royale companion game "", Soap made his first appearance in voice only, portrayed by Neil Ellice. In August 2021, Soap was added to "Modern Warfare" and "Warzone" as a playable Operator character.