This pin names how shame has been used as a tool of control. Colonial systems relied on shaming people out of their languages, bodies, beliefs, relationships, and ways of living—marking them as inferior, immoral, or wrong in order to enforce conformity and dominance.
From a mental health perspective, shame often shows up not as an individual flaw, but as something learned through repeated exposure to judgment, surveillance, and punishment. It becomes internalized, shaping how people relate to themselves long after the original sources of harm are gone.
Wearing this pin signals an awareness that shame is not neutral or inevitable. It points to the historical and structural forces that produce it—and to the possibility of unlearning it through dignity, connection, and self-trust.
Shame didn’t begin inside us.
It was taught.
| 1.25" | |
|---|---|
| Diameter, in | 1.25 |
| Thickness, in | 0.16 |
This pin names how shame has been used as a tool of control. Colonial systems relied on shaming people out of their languages, bodies, beliefs, relationships, and ways of living—marking them as inferior, immoral, or wrong in order to enforce conformity and dominance.
From a mental health perspective, shame often shows up not as an individual flaw, but as something learned through repeated exposure to judgment, surveillance, and punishment. It becomes internalized, shaping how people relate to themselves long after the original sources of harm are gone.
Wearing this pin signals an awareness that shame is not neutral or inevitable. It points to the historical and structural forces that produce it—and to the possibility of unlearning it through dignity, connection, and self-trust.
Shame didn’t begin inside us.
It was taught.
| 1.25" | |
|---|---|
| Diameter, in | 1.25 |
| Thickness, in | 0.16 |
