Starred review from January 17, 2022
Data scientist O’Neil (Weapons of Math Destruction) takes a thought-provoking look at shame in contemporary America. Typically understood as the feeling derived from a conflict between the individual’s desires and society’s norms, shame in the digital age is “manufactured and mined” by “giant sectors of the economy” that want to “harvest something of value from us,” O’Neil argues. These “shame machines” include social media platforms, the health and wellness industry, and programs ostensibly created to help the poor that require drug testing or immense bureaucratic burdens, and only serve to perpetuate dysfunctional status quos. O’Neil explains that when shame is used properly—by punching up instead of down—it can help to ensure fairness and justice. Online shaming, however, tends to be counterproductive. Interwoven with illuminating case studies of teenage girls in Manhattan private schools, the hikikomori movement of shut-ins in Japan, and incels on Reddit are O’Neil’s reflections on the experience of being conditioned to feel bad about her weight. She tells these and other stories with grace and wit, and effectively disputes the “phony science, cognitive dissonance, and self-preserving flattery” often used to justify shaming others. This is a unique and riveting look at a crucial yet little understood aspect of modern life.
February 1, 2022
A flinty look at a culture and economy based on the premise that there are points to be scored and dollars to be made by shaming people. "Shame is a policing tool," writes data scientist and mathematician O'Neil, "and it has been one since the first clans of humans roamed the savannas of Africa." As a means of reinforcing taboos and social norms, shame has its uses. Yet, as O'Neil gamely writes, there's a "shamescape" at work, "always brimming with opportunity." If there's a diet on the market, there's a huckster out there to flog it, always playing on the shame of a person who believes they are heavier than what cultural and social norms consider acceptable. In one of O'Neil's most unpleasantly pointed examples, she examines the whisper-of-shame subeconomy surrounding female genitalia and the horror that an odor might be detected. Lysol, she notes, was originally marketed in a campaign that "shamed half of humanity for the by-products of a functioning reproductive system" and was laced with chemicals that caused burns and even death. Our sexual organs, she writes, "generate profound fears and insecurities within us. Even in these more sexually liberated times we tend to envelop them in secrecy." O'Neil takes a philosophical turn in her discussion of the acceptability of shaming, arriving at a standard whereby those who can do nothing about a condition should be shielded whereas those who might be able to adjust--incels, for one, who "are not hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world"--might understandably weather a few shame-based nudges to grow up. Whether it's smoking in public, masking against Covid-19, or promulgating political lies, O'Neil allows room for shame while also urging readers always to "punch up" at the social and economic machine and its masters rather than down at the vulnerable. A thoughtful blend of social and biological science, history, economics, and sometimes contrarian politics.
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February 4, 2022
To most individuals, the mere mention of the word shame elicits feelings of being undeserving of health, fame, and/or professional success, and creates a seemingly endless internal need to work harder in order to achieve them. When used as a motivator by well-meaning individuals, some shame is healthy, but in this volume, O'Neil--an author (Weapons of Math Destruction), math educator, and technology and business professional--argues that shame is now fueled mostly by rich, powerful corporate entities or individuals who have turned it into a powerful "machine" that helps them profit and hold on to power. Social media has become a powerful tool, often using humiliation of individuals and the distortion and spreading of a unique, often accidental or embarrassing individual act or comment in order to cause it to "go viral," quickly permeate society and become a rallying point for masses. Using her powerful story telling techniques including her own experience from weight-loss surgery, O'Neil argues that the long-term solution to this societal problem includes its recognition, and plentiful use of the good human characteristics of kindness and compassion. VERDICT Thoroughly researched, well written, timely, and easy to understand, O'Neil's book can and should find a wide audience. Recommended for all libraries.--Steve Dixon
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 25, 2022
In this wide-ranging, global consideration of shame, O'Neil (Weapons of Math Destruction, 2017) advocates for detoxifying shame by dismantling profiteering "shame machines" like the diet industry that "punch down" on the powerless to compounding effects. In contrast, she argues that healthy shame, or "punching up" at the voiced and powerful, is a useful tool to create needed change. A lifetime of fat shaming shaped O'Neil's thinking. She opens with a shame-shock incident at a grocery store checkout and closes with her choice to have bariatric surgery. While the argument's core is solid, some examples equivocate and oversimplify. One problematic emphasized takeaway in the retelling of white woman Amy Cooper calling the police with false attack claims about Black Central Park birdwatcher Christian Cooper, for example, is that in the era of instant communication of networked shame, "people have less time to catch up to the new standards and adjust their beliefs and behaviors."" Readers will be taken on a broad and meaningful survey of the "shamescape" from incels to Google AI to masking and vaxxing to addiction recovery.
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