Peter Tatchell and Sophie Scott-Brown discuss naming and shaming.

Under what circumstances, if any, should people be publicly shamed?

Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/naming-and-shami...

Shame has long been a powerful tool of social regulation, as the medieval stocks and the Christian association of shame with nakedness testify. But today critics argue that contemporary mechanisms of shame, like cyberbullying, 'fat shaming', and aspects of so-called cancel culture, have spiralled dangerously out of control. Studies have shown shame to be correlated with anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Fuelled by social media, some claim we are seeing a shift from a guilt to a shaming culture, which is highly damaging to society and the individual.

Should we seek to excise shame from social and public life to protect the well-being of all? Or are shifts in attitudes to racism and sexism evidence that shame is an important and powerful motivator for change? At root are we right to feel shame when we violate social norms, or should we seek to overcome shame and feel confident even if we recognise that we have acted badly?

#cancelculture #freedomofspeech #shame

00:00 Introduction
00:45 Peter Tatchell on Germaine Greer
01:32 Naming and shaming can be positive
02:20 Peter Tatchell on cancelling Jamaican reggae stars
03:32 Sophie Scott-Brown on freedom of speech
05:00 Satyagraha
07:06 Is shame a force for good?
08:37 Is McCarthyism back?
09:08 Peter Tatchell defends Phillip Schofield and Huw Edwards
10:08 Peter Tatchell on campaigning against Michael Portillo
13:11 Shame in ancient philosophy
14:40 Shame and algorithms

Sophie Scott-Brown is a prestigious intellectual historian, a lecturer at the University of Oxford, and a Director of the Europaeum Institute of European History. Peter Tatchell is an inspiring human rights campaigner, a member of the gay rights group Outrage!, and director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, a human rights organization. Joanna Kavenna is an award-winning novelist. Florence Read hosts.

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