Eliciting Acceptance For “Illicit” Organizations: The Positive Implications of Stigma for MMA Organizations

Abstract

This paper explores the positive implications that stigma has for organizations and how it may lead to broader acceptance for them among social audiences. We conduct a qualitative study of stigmatized—but increasingly accepted—mixed martial arts (MMA) organizations and the audiences that evaluated them through an analysis of interviews, media reports, and texts documenting their experiences. We found the following. First, there were three different types of stigma associated with MMA organizations: aesthetic, lawlessness, and harm-based. Second, MMA organizational actors used stigma to their advantage in two, opposing manners. They coopted negative labels to gain the awareness of supportive audiences, as well as drew from them to correct negative evaluations held by critical audiences regarding their organizations. This demonstrates that, rather than attempting to “pass as normal,” stigmatized organizational actors can actively construct those attributes that are the focus of stigma and persuade audiences to reconsider their negative evaluations, rendering their organizations more acceptable.

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