Terry Prone: What a shame to get your kicks out of righteous indignation

Shaming others moved from the public square to online — it now happens so frequently that 'trending' can be a synonym for 'shaming'

JK Rowling was one extremely tall poppy/ high achiever. Her gender won’t have helped, either: women suffer online shaming more than men.

SHAMING isn’t new. It’s not even recent in origin. It can be traced back to leprosy in Biblical times. Having to carry a bell to warn off the uninfected was in itself a tool of shame. The bell-ringer was, as their cry affirmed, “Unclean, unclean”. 

The frisson of terror the healthy experienced at the sound of the bell has to have been accompanied by a strand of self-satisfaction.