Our face and stigma

In 2020, I attended a Christmas event with a transvestite community. The most memorable part for me of this event was when the chairman of transvestites, Evie Musa, delivered the opening remarks. Evie's speech contained the outpouring of her heart about the pain and wounds they had been feeling. Evie complains about the discriminatory actions, stigmatization, and labeling that they have felt. This article aims to discuss this theme and look at all forms of stigmatization from the perspective of the ethics of responsibility initiated by the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

Levinas firmly affirmed ethics as the first philosophy. This affirmation aims to direct philosophy to praxis and translate itself as wisdom in love. Wisdom in love is the inspiration for every ethical action to be responsible for ‘the other.’ Levinas wants to dismantle the egotism of western philosophy which is fixated on the 'I' and directs philosophy to ‘the other'. The responsibility proposed by Levinas requires one person to be kind and fair to ‘the other.’ Our actions should always consider ‘the other’: an attitude of acceptance of the presence of others with all humility and understanding.

The response to the presence of ‘the other’ must always lead to responsibility. The other’s face greets us, teasing us and inviting our response. The face appealed to us, asking us to practice justice. We have to get out of the confines of our egoism and show our responsibility to the need of ‘the other’. Levinas invites us to see things from the other’s perspective. What will happen to me if I am the victim of discrimination? What will I do if other people limit my living space and treat me arbitrarily?

Evie complains and mourns the amount of stigma they feel. Evie, as well as those people who have been pushed aside due to being defeated, were in the position of being held hostage by ‘us'. We didn't get into their position, but instead, we took them hostage and forced them into ours. We act authoritatively on them. Our awareness of their presence with all their conditions often does not lead to our responsibility in the form of acceptance and understanding. The presence of their 'faces' which urged us to practice justice was responded to in the form of rejection, injustice, and intimidation. In front of their faces, we more often put ourselves as a wolf who always has a reason to prey on them.

The new mindset in the perspective of Levinas's philosophy invites us to get out of egotism and the totality of self-subjectivity that places oneself as a normal person by placing others as abnormal.

Everyone is invited to transpose oneself, enter into the other’s position, and see life from a different perspective. If the invitation to enter into the other’s position leads us to see and put ourselves in the position of transvestite people, we will find that all forms of stigma that we attach to others become unnecessary. We need to be accepted with all our terms, and at the same time be responsible for accepting others with all their conditions as well.

Evie said that she and her friends were often branded and ridiculed as immoral, causing problems, and various other stigmas. Regarding stigma, Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman said that a person with a stigma is not fully human. Under these conditions, we make a lot of discrimination which reduces their chances of survival effectively, even if we do it unintentionally. A person who is stigmatized is usually harassed, ridiculed, and becomes the object of hatred. If we refer to Goffman, we will find that every form of stigma that we put on transvestite people, has reduced their chances of survival. We always place them as objects of hatred.

The ethical implication of Goffman's mindset is a fundamental call to respect others with their differences and break all chains of stigmatization. Without the will and humility to see life from the other side, stigmatization will continue to occur. Greek philosopher, Democritus, once said that whoever commits a crime against another should feel ashamed of himself. More than that, all people who choose to be silent in front of this issue should be ashamed of themselves because of their silence.

Kristo Suhardi