ABSTRACT
The determination of a border between the inside and the outside according to ‘the simple logic of excluding filth’, as Kristeva puts it, or the imperative of ‘distancing from disgust’ (Constance Perin) translates into several different corporeal or social images which signal imperfection or a low ranking in a hierarchy of being. Exclusionary discourse draws particularly on colour, disease, animals, sexuality and nature, but they all come back to the idea of dirt as a signifier of imperfection and inferiority, the reference point being the white, often male, physically and mentally able person. In this chapter, I will discuss ways in which psychoanalytical theory has been used in the deconstruction of stereotypes, those ‘others’ from which the subject is distanced, and I will then examine some of the particular cultural sources of stereotyping in western societies. Stereotypes play an important par t in the configuration of social space because of the importance of distanciation in the behaviour of social groups, that is, distancing from others who are represented negatively, and because of the way in which group images and place images combine to create landscapes of exclusion. The issues I examine concern oppression and denial. I try to show how difference is harnessed in the exercise of power and the subordination of minorities.1
