When a person loses his honor, he suffers a dishonor. The idea of honor can allude to dignity, modesty or the recognition that is obtained thanks to merit and virtues. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to dishonor.
Disgrace, therefore, occurs if an individual is disrespected or has their integrity violated. Even the victim can be an entity or an institution. The dishonorable act, which is also known as disgrace, can have different characteristics.
For example: “Working in domestic service is not a disgrace”, “The president’s statements are a disgrace to all the inhabitants of this city”, “Having a cowardly and corrupt sergeant is a disgrace to the army”.
Disgrace can be considered an attack on honor. Take the case of the son of a famous businessman who uses his father’s name to commit scams, without his father being aware of what is happening. When the fact comes to light and the young man is arrested, his father is very hurt by the behavior of his son and affirms that it is a disgrace to his family, which managed to grow economically thanks to the effort and to decent work.
It is important to note that honor and dishonor are subjective. A man may feel dishonored if his wife appears in public in scantily clad clothes; to another subject in the same situation, on the other hand, that does not affect him since he considers that she is a free choice of the woman. Suffering dishonor or not, therefore, is sometimes linked to personal or even cultural issues.
Within the gypsy ethnic group there are a series of very specific ideas about dishonor. Thus, for example, it is established that if a woman is not a virgin at marriage, that is a dishonor for her entire family, as well as for herself.
For this reason, within the wedding ceremony there is a first part in which the bride undergoes what is known as a handkerchief test. Specifically, this consists of inserting a handkerchief into her vagina to certify that she has never had sexual intercourse. If the handkerchief comes out stained with blood, it is that she is a virgin and, therefore, the link continues. However, if it is proven that she is not a virgin, the wedding is called off and that brings great disgrace to her family.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the fact that there is a movie called “Dishonor”, precisely. It premiered in 1952, is part of the drama genre and is from Argentina. It is a black and white film that was directed by Daniel Tinayre and that had a cast headed by Fanny Navarro, Tita Merello or Mecha Ortiz.
It revolves around a women’s prison in which a female accused of having committed a murder, of which she is absolutely innocent, is admitted.
However, within the cultural field we also find other works that have the term in question in their title. This would be the case, for example, of the novel “Shame”, written by JM Coetzee.