stig·ma
[ˈstiɡmə]
NOUN
a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or PERSON:
"the stigma of having gone to prison will always be with me" .
synonyms:
shame · disgrace · dishonor · stain · taint · blot · blot on one's escutcheon · blemish · brand · mark · slur · smirch
Being stigmatized is never a happy feeling. It is always when someone else chooses to judge us without knowing who we are and the things we are going through in our lives. To help other girls break stigmas we created an interactive workshop that hoped to give girls a better understanding of hurtful stigmas can be.
Before the girls started the main acitvity, we wanted them to get comfortable and form opinions about each other. The Beach Ball icebreaker is an activity where you draw short prompts and you toss it to a fellow Girl Scout. When they catch it whatever question it lands on is the one they'll answer.
Once we discussed what stigmas were, we had the girls take this bingo game and think of people they know that meet these stigmas. Some of these stigmas are more positive like "has lots of friends", but others can be more hurtful like "likes to get presents, but not give them" which would suggest that they think of someone as being selfish. The goal here was to show how stigmas come in all varieties and how we should try to avoid the negatives.
Working through these exercises girls learned how stigmas are not a reflection of who they truly are. But the only way to stop the vicious cycle of everyone judging everyone else is by keeping to the Girl Scout Law...