How do I explain the concept of shame within the context of growing up raised by an Italian mother? Maybe this article will give a clue.
It’s hard to relate what it’s like to live with this to people who haven’t experienced it in their culture, nor the impact it has on someone who is especially sensitive. You can’t really eradicate the memories of humiliation, and the self-judgment that it causes as a reflex, which lives with you for years. In researching this subject, I came across this article too. Bingo.
Everyone has their early influences, and they are not easy to eradicate. If you meet someone from another culture, unless you are an asshole you don’t force them into doing something that triggers certain punishment of a potentially dangerous kind – if someone is Kosher you don’t slip them a dish with pork in it, just because you don’t agree with the concept of Kosher. Isn’t it polite to respect who they are, as you would prefer that they respect who you are? It isn’t your job, after all, to “save them” from what you disagree with – unless it’s a matter of life and death.
Odilonvert 