Badge of shame
Encyclopedia
A badge of shame, also a symbol of shame, mark of shame, or simply a stigma, is typically a distinctive symbol required to be worn by a specific group or an individual for the purpose of public humiliation
, ostracism, or persecution
. Under the Poor Law Act of 1697, paupers in receipt of parish relief were required to wear a badge of blue or red cloth on the shoulder of the right sleeve in an open and visible manner, in order to make life more humiliating for the poor.
The yellow badge
that Jews were required to wear in parts of Europe
during the Middle Ages
, and later in Nazi Germany
and German–occupied Europe
, was intended to be a badge
of shame
. The term may also refer to other identifying marks that are associated with shame. The biblical "Mark of Cain
" can be interpreted as synonymous with a badge of shame. The term is also used metaphorically, especially in a pejorative sense, to characterize something associated with a person or group as shameful.
, was intended as a mark of shame in ancient cultures where male body hair was valued. Women who committed adultery
have also been forced to wear specific icons or marks, or had their hair shorn, as a badge of shame throughout history. Many women who fraternized with the occupiers in German–occupied Europe had their heads shaved by angry mobs of their peers after liberation by the Allies of World War II
.
During the war, the Nazis also used head shaving as a mark of shame to punish Germans like the youthful non-conformists known as the Edelweiss Pirates
. Additionally, stigma can be invisible, such as is the case with negative attitudes leading to prejudice of persons with mental disorders.
, both men and women originally wore the toga
, but over time matrons adopted the stola
as the preferred form of dress, while prostitutes retained the toga. Later, under the Lex Julia
, women convicted of prostitution
were forced to wear a toga muliebris, as the prostitute's badge of shame.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Pope Innocent III
prohibited Christians from causing Jews bodily harm, but supported their segregation in society. On at least one occasion he likened this to the fate of Cain described in the Book of Genesis, writing to the Count of Nevers:
After Innocent III later presided over the Fourth Council of the Lateran
in 1215,
the council adopted canon 68, requiring Jews (and Muslims) to dress distinctively to prevent interfaith relations.
This canon was largely ignored by the secular governments of Europe until 1269 when King Louis IX of France
, later Saint Louis, was persuaded to decree that French Jews must wear a round yellow badge
on their breast and back.
After the Albigensian Crusade
ended in 1229, the subsequent Papal inquisition of Pope Gregory IX
imposed the ecclesiastical penance
of the Cathar yellow cross
as a badge of shame to be worn by the remaining repentant Cathar
s convicted of heresy
.
In colonial
New England
during the 17th and 18th centuries, courts required people convicted of sexual immorality to wear the letter 'A' or letters 'AD' for adultery and the letter 'I' for incest
on their clothing. Striped prison uniforms commonly used in the 19th century were abolished in the United States early in the 20th century because their continued use as a badge of shame was considered undesirable.
In the early 2000s, the Taliban in Afghanistan required Afghan Hindus
to wear yellow badge
s.
with a hot iron, by having the marks burned into the skin of the face or forehead for all to see.
The practice of human branding with visible marks on the face had been firmly established by King Edward VI of England
under the 1547 Statute of Vagabonds, which specified the burning of the letter 'S' on the cheek or forehead of an escaped slave, and the letter 'F' for 'fraymaker' on the cheek of a church brawler.
James Nayler
, an English
Quaker convicted of blasphemy in 1656, was famously branded with a 'B' on his forehead.
The practice of human branding was abolished in England by 1829. It continued in the United States until at least 1864, during the American Civil War
, where some deserters
from the Union Army
had their face branded with the letter 'D' as a mark of shame intended to discourage others.
schoolrooms, misbehaving students were sent to sit in a corner of the room wearing a sign that said "Âne" meaning donkey
or ass, or were forced to wear a jester's cap with donkey's ears, sometimes conical in shape, known as a "cap d'âne", meaining "ass' head". In traditional British
and American
schoolrooms, the tall conical "dunce cap
", often marked with the letter 'D', was used as the badge of shame for disfavored students. The dunce cap is no longer used in modern education, although other forms of shame are still used to punish students.
Nazi concentration camp badges
of shame were triangular and color coded to classify prisoners by reason for detention, and Jews wore two triangles in the shape of the six-pointed Star of David
. These symbols, intended by the Nazis to be marks of shame, had opposite meanings after World War II
: the triangle symbols were used on memorials to those killed in the concentration camps, the pink triangle
that homosexual prisoners were required to wear became a symbol of gay pride
,
and the Zionists'
Star of David, also co-opted for the Nazi version of the yellow badge, was subsequently featured prominently on the flag of Israel
.
Conversely, symbols intended to have positive connotations can have unintended consequences
. After World War I
the U.S. War Department
awarded gold chevrons to soldiers serving in the combat zones in Europe. The silver chevrons awarded for honorable domestic service in support of the war effort were instead considered a badge of shame by many recipients.
In April 1945 the government of Czechoslovakia
ordered the expropriation, denaturalisation and ensuing deportation of all Czechoslovaks of Magyar
or German
native language. In May 1945 Czechoslovaks of German native language had to wear white or yellow armbands with a capital N, for Němec (German), printed on. The armbands were to worn on the outside clothes until finally the government had deported all its citizens of German native language until 1947.
More recently, in 2007, the Bangkok
, Thailand
police switched to punitive pink armbands adorned with the cute Hello Kitty
cartoon character when the tartan
armbands that had been intended to be worn as a badge of shame for minor infractions were instead treated as collectibles by offending officers forced to wear them, creating a perverse incentive
. The revised scheme, however, was also shortly disbanded.
's classic 1850 romance novel The Scarlet Letter
, set in 17th century Puritan
Boston, the lead character Hester Prynne is led from the town prison with the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she had committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin for all to see. Originally intended as a badge of shame, it would later take on different meanings as her fictional life progressed in the story.
The 1916 silent film
The Yellow Passport, starring Clara Kimball Young
, was also known as The Badge of Shame when it was reissued in 1917.
In the 2006 film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
, Lord Cutler Beckett
(Tom Hollander
) is seen using as a fireplace poker, a branding iron
with the letter 'P' that he used to impart the "pirate's brand" seen on the right forearm of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp
). According to the backstory, Sparrow was branded a pirate by Beckett for refusing to transport slaves for the East India Trading Company.
In the film Inglourious Basterds the protagonists carve swastikas into the foreheads of surviving Nazis, to make their malfeasance known to all in the future.
Public humiliation
Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons .- Shameful exposure :...
, ostracism, or persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
. Under the Poor Law Act of 1697, paupers in receipt of parish relief were required to wear a badge of blue or red cloth on the shoulder of the right sleeve in an open and visible manner, in order to make life more humiliating for the poor.
The yellow badge
Yellow badge
The yellow badge , also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order to mark them as Jews in public. It is intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism...
that Jews were required to wear in parts of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, and later in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and German–occupied Europe
German–occupied Europe
German–occupied Europe or Nazi Empire refers to the countries of Europe which were occupied by the military forces of Nazi Germany at various times between 1938 and 1945....
, was intended to be a badge
Badge
A badge is a device or fashion accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath , a sign of legitimate employment or student status, or as a simple...
of shame
Shame
Shame is, variously, an affect, emotion, cognition, state, or condition. The roots of the word shame are thought to derive from an older word meaning to cover; as such, covering oneself, literally or figuratively, is a natural expression of shame....
. The term may also refer to other identifying marks that are associated with shame. The biblical "Mark of Cain
Curse and mark of Cain
In Christianity and Judaism, the curse of Cain and the mark of Cain refer to the passages in the Biblical Book of Genesis where God declared that Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, was cursed for murdering his brother, and placed a mark upon him to warn others that killing Cain would provoke...
" can be interpreted as synonymous with a badge of shame. The term is also used metaphorically, especially in a pejorative sense, to characterize something associated with a person or group as shameful.
Depilation
Punitive depilation of men, especially burning off pubic hairPubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
, was intended as a mark of shame in ancient cultures where male body hair was valued. Women who committed adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
have also been forced to wear specific icons or marks, or had their hair shorn, as a badge of shame throughout history. Many women who fraternized with the occupiers in German–occupied Europe had their heads shaved by angry mobs of their peers after liberation by the Allies of World War II
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
.
During the war, the Nazis also used head shaving as a mark of shame to punish Germans like the youthful non-conformists known as the Edelweiss Pirates
Edelweiss Pirates
The Edelweiss Pirates were a loose group of youth culture in Nazi Germany. They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth...
. Additionally, stigma can be invisible, such as is the case with negative attitudes leading to prejudice of persons with mental disorders.
Clothing
In Ancient RomeAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, both men and women originally wore the toga
Toga
The toga, a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a cloth of perhaps 20 ft in length which was wrapped around the body and was generally worn over a tunic. The toga was made of wool, and the tunic under it often was made of linen. After the 2nd century BC, the toga was a garment worn...
, but over time matrons adopted the stola
Stola
The stola was the traditional garment of Roman women, corresponding to the toga, or the pallium, that were worn by men.Originally, women wore togas as well, but after the 2nd century BC, the toga was worn exclusively by men, and women were expected to wear the stola...
as the preferred form of dress, while prostitutes retained the toga. Later, under the Lex Julia
Lex Julia
Lex Julia are ancient Roman laws, introduced by any member of the Julian family....
, women convicted of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
were forced to wear a toga muliebris, as the prostitute's badge of shame.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
prohibited Christians from causing Jews bodily harm, but supported their segregation in society. On at least one occasion he likened this to the fate of Cain described in the Book of Genesis, writing to the Count of Nevers:
After Innocent III later presided over the Fourth Council of the Lateran
Fourth Council of the Lateran
The Fourth Council of the Lateran was convoked by Pope Innocent III with the papal bull of April 19, 1213, and the Council gathered at Rome's Lateran Palace beginning November 11, 1215. Due to the great length of time between the Council's convocation and meeting, many bishops had the opportunity...
in 1215,
the council adopted canon 68, requiring Jews (and Muslims) to dress distinctively to prevent interfaith relations.
This canon was largely ignored by the secular governments of Europe until 1269 when King Louis IX of France
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
, later Saint Louis, was persuaded to decree that French Jews must wear a round yellow badge
Yellow badge
The yellow badge , also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order to mark them as Jews in public. It is intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism...
on their breast and back.
After the Albigensian Crusade
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...
ended in 1229, the subsequent Papal inquisition of Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...
imposed the ecclesiastical penance
Penance
Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...
of the Cathar yellow cross
Cathar yellow cross
In the Middle Ages, the Cathar yellow cross was a distinguishing mark worn by repentant Cathars, who were ordered to wear it by the Roman Catholic Church.-Background:...
as a badge of shame to be worn by the remaining repentant Cathar
Cathar
Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...
s convicted of heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
.
In colonial
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
during the 17th and 18th centuries, courts required people convicted of sexual immorality to wear the letter 'A' or letters 'AD' for adultery and the letter 'I' for incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
on their clothing. Striped prison uniforms commonly used in the 19th century were abolished in the United States early in the 20th century because their continued use as a badge of shame was considered undesirable.
In the early 2000s, the Taliban in Afghanistan required Afghan Hindus
Hinduism in Afghanistan
Hinduism in Afghanistan has existed for almost as long as Hinduism itself. The religion was widespread in the region until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan...
to wear yellow badge
Yellow badge
The yellow badge , also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order to mark them as Jews in public. It is intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism...
s.
Skin
Societies have marked people directly in the practice generally known as being "branded a criminal". Criminals and slaves have been marked throughout history with tattoos. Sexual immorality in colonial New England was also punished by human brandingHuman branding
Human branding or stigmatizing is the process in which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar makes it permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron...
with a hot iron, by having the marks burned into the skin of the face or forehead for all to see.
The practice of human branding with visible marks on the face had been firmly established by King Edward VI of England
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
under the 1547 Statute of Vagabonds, which specified the burning of the letter 'S' on the cheek or forehead of an escaped slave, and the letter 'F' for 'fraymaker' on the cheek of a church brawler.
James Nayler
James Nayler
James Nayler was an English Quaker leader. He is among the members of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries. At the peak of his career, he preached against enclosure and the slave trade....
, an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Quaker convicted of blasphemy in 1656, was famously branded with a 'B' on his forehead.
The practice of human branding was abolished in England by 1829. It continued in the United States until at least 1864, during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, where some deserters
Desertion
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
from the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
had their face branded with the letter 'D' as a mark of shame intended to discourage others.
Headwear
In old-fashioned FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
schoolrooms, misbehaving students were sent to sit in a corner of the room wearing a sign that said "Âne" meaning donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
or ass, or were forced to wear a jester's cap with donkey's ears, sometimes conical in shape, known as a "cap d'âne", meaining "ass' head". In traditional British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
schoolrooms, the tall conical "dunce cap
Dunce cap
A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap, or dunce's hat, is a pointed hat. In popular culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with a D or the word "dunce", and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment by public humiliation for misbehavior and, as the name...
", often marked with the letter 'D', was used as the badge of shame for disfavored students. The dunce cap is no longer used in modern education, although other forms of shame are still used to punish students.
Other meanings
Nazi concentration camp badges
Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the system of identification in Nazi camps. They were used in the concentration camps in the Nazi-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn on...
of shame were triangular and color coded to classify prisoners by reason for detention, and Jews wore two triangles in the shape of the six-pointed Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
. These symbols, intended by the Nazis to be marks of shame, had opposite meanings after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
: the triangle symbols were used on memorials to those killed in the concentration camps, the pink triangle
Pink triangle
The pink triangle was one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, used to identify male prisoners who were sent there because of their homosexuality. Every prisoner had to wear a downward-pointing triangle on his or her jacket, the colour of which was to categorise him or her by "kind"...
that homosexual prisoners were required to wear became a symbol of gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
,
and the Zionists'
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
Star of David, also co-opted for the Nazi version of the yellow badge, was subsequently featured prominently on the flag of Israel
Flag of Israel
The flag of Israel was adopted on October 28, 1948, five months after the country's establishment. It depicts a blue Star of David on a white background, between two horizontal blue stripes...
.
Conversely, symbols intended to have positive connotations can have unintended consequences
Unintended Consequences
Unintended Consequences is a novel by John Ross, first published in 1996 by Accurate Press. The story chronicles the history of the gun culture, gun rights and gun control in the United States from the early 1900s through the late 1990s...
. After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the U.S. War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
awarded gold chevrons to soldiers serving in the combat zones in Europe. The silver chevrons awarded for honorable domestic service in support of the war effort were instead considered a badge of shame by many recipients.
In April 1945 the government of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
ordered the expropriation, denaturalisation and ensuing deportation of all Czechoslovaks of Magyar
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
or German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
native language. In May 1945 Czechoslovaks of German native language had to wear white or yellow armbands with a capital N, for Němec (German), printed on. The armbands were to worn on the outside clothes until finally the government had deported all its citizens of German native language until 1947.
More recently, in 2007, the Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
police switched to punitive pink armbands adorned with the cute Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty
is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States...
cartoon character when the tartan
Tartan
Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
armbands that had been intended to be worn as a badge of shame for minor infractions were instead treated as collectibles by offending officers forced to wear them, creating a perverse incentive
Perverse incentive
A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result which is contrary to the interests of the incentive makers. Perverse incentives are a type of unintended consequences.- Examples :...
. The revised scheme, however, was also shortly disbanded.
Fictional works
In Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
's classic 1850 romance novel The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an...
, set in 17th century Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
Boston, the lead character Hester Prynne is led from the town prison with the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she had committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin for all to see. Originally intended as a badge of shame, it would later take on different meanings as her fictional life progressed in the story.
The 1916 silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
The Yellow Passport, starring Clara Kimball Young
Clara Kimball Young
Clara Kimball Young was an American film actress, who was highly regarded and publicly popular in the early silent film era.-Early life:...
, was also known as The Badge of Shame when it was reissued in 1917.
In the 2006 film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a 2006 adventure fantasy film and the second film of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, following Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . It was directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and produced by...
, Lord Cutler Beckett
Cutler Beckett
Lord Cutler Beckett is a fictional character portrayed by Tom Hollander in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He appears as a main antagonist in Dead Man's Chest and in At World's End...
(Tom Hollander
Tom Hollander
Thomas Anthony "Tom" Hollander is a British actor who has appeared in productions such as Enigma, Gosford Park, Cambridge Spies, Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean, In the Loop, Valkyrie and Hanna.-Early life:Tom Hollander was born in Bristol and raised in Oxford, Oxfordshire, the son...
) is seen using as a fireplace poker, a branding iron
Human branding
Human branding or stigmatizing is the process in which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar makes it permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron...
with the letter 'P' that he used to impart the "pirate's brand" seen on the right forearm of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
). According to the backstory, Sparrow was branded a pirate by Beckett for refusing to transport slaves for the East India Trading Company.
In the film Inglourious Basterds the protagonists carve swastikas into the foreheads of surviving Nazis, to make their malfeasance known to all in the future.