Distant from bigotry: celebrities’ narratives of bullying and contemporary subjectivity

Abstract

This article proposes that celebrities’ claims of being victims of bullying are a symptom of the contemporary mode of production of subjectivity. These narratives are a symptom because they portray distancing from bigotry as a way of thinking what one wishes and what one can be. Their mode is contemporary because it substitutes the distancing from the abnormal, which is presented as the modern mode of production of subjectivity. To place this substitution in a historical context, a brief description is given of the history of semantic transformations in the concept of bullying. Finally, the concept of reflexive shame is proposed as the emotion experienced when a person distances himself from intolerance.