[How About This Book] Your Shame Is Being Exploited

"Shame becomes their power and money." This is the central theme of the book. The author is a relatively successful individual. He earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University and served as a tenured professor in the Mathematics Department at Barnard College. However, since childhood, he has been strongly constrained by a complex: obesity.

On the day he passed his doctoral qualifying exam and was overjoyed, the author decided to celebrate by baking a batch of cookies and stopped by a supermarket to buy ingredients. When he placed flour, sugar, and chocolate chips on the counter, the store clerk provoked his shame with these words: "Why are you buying these ingredients? Don’t you know you’re fat?"

It doesn’t end there. The author and many people around us face numerous situations that trigger shame. During the author’s school days, the school publicly measured students’ weights every year in the auditorium. When a student stepped on the scale, the school nurse loudly announced the weight, and the physical education teacher recorded it. At that time, the nurse said to the author, "Do you really weigh that much? Is it really 47 kg?"

The author points out that such shame becomes their money, referring to "weight management companies, large pharmaceutical firms," and so on. It is well known that the shame of obesity increases the sales of diet drugs. However, this is a very limited perspective. Broadening the view, shame includes "coping mechanisms" that soothe shame, such as alcohol and drugs. The author warns that the more intense the shame, the easier it is to fall into escapism.

In the same vein, poverty shame fattens loan sharks. According to the author, authorities are not benevolent either. They sell lottery tickets to the poor who hope for a life turnaround to extract profits, spread the perception that poverty is the result of laziness, dismiss government aid recipients as lazy, thereby saving on taxes. Furthermore, they "make the failed person pay the price and accept their current misfortune," turning the direction of resentment inward.

Provocative advertising slogans also stimulate shame to make money. "Become a woman who doesn’t have vaginal odor." The author points out, "The market that exploits our body’s embarrassing combinations is more profitable than ever," noting that there are 50,000 types of (supplementary) products on the market, a tenfold increase over the past 20 years.

So, what is the way to escape the manipulation of shame? The author suggests "self-awareness" as the solution, stating that the starting point is realizing "the logic that blames the weak supports the reality where shame becomes their money." Citing psychologist Donna Hicks, he explains that humans experience contempt, exclusion, and distrust, making shame?not dignity?the center of life, and unconsciously blame the weak. Respecting all other humans is the fundamental solution.

The book explains, with various examples, where public shame originates, how such feelings are exploited, and how to escape those situations. It emphasizes that the starting point is "oneself" and that personal change can change the world.

Shame Machine | Written by Cathy O'Neil | Translated by Kim Sun-young | 320 pages | Heurim Publishing | 18,500 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.