I can't seem to figure out the word to use here. I need a noun that describes the state of (someone) being an outcast, but nothing's coming to mind, and I'm not really sure how I would go about looking up synonyms to a word that doesn't exist.
This is the sentence:
Instead of physical obstacles, both are faced with societal resistance and ______.
I might just restructure it, but now I'm kind of interested. Am I just blanking and missing a really obvious word?
Marginalization may be a useful word for you to use.
"Instead of physical obstacles, both are faced with societal resistance and marginalization."
In your example sentence, it sounds like the problem is a little less absolute than "ostracism" would imply. Ostracism is when they are excluded entirely, little to no interaction, full stop. Marginalization is a little bit less extreme, they are pushed to the edges, not taken seriously or not well accepted. To me this fits better with "social resistance", which seems to imply something more like dislike and disagreement rather than opposition or outright refusal.
Social exclusion, or social marginalization, is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. - wikipedia
or
Marginalization - 1) to place in a position of marginal importance, influence, or power; 2)to relegate to the fringes, out of the mainstream; make seem unimportant - Dictionary.com
See if ostracism suffices. Check out this definition at Oxford dictionary:
Exclusion from a society or group.
You might consider the word alienation. As dictionary.com defines it:
alienation (noun):
the act of alienating, or of causing someone to become indifferent or hostile: The advocacy group fights against prejudice and social alienation of immigrants.
the state of being alienated, withdrawn, or isolated from the objective world, as through indifference or disaffection: the group's alienation from mainstream society.
Although I like vocabulary.com's highly-evocative definition best:
alienation
An easy way to experience alienation from your nice-smelling friends is to go a month without bathing.
Alienation is a state of being cut off or separate from a person or group of people.The noun alienation describes the feeling that you're not part of a group. Your political views might cause you to feel a sense of alienation from the rest of your family, or your vegetarianism could result in alienation from your meat-eating friends. The Latin word for alien is alienus, "belonging to another." That idea of not belonging, or not fitting in, gave rise to the Latin verb alienare, "to estrange," which alienation comes from.
The word "exclusion" fits too.
Instead of physical obstacles, both are faced with societal resistance and exclusion.
ODO:
exclusion NOUN
1 The process or state of excluding or being excluded.
‘Geeks and freaks become what they are negatively, through their exclusion by others.’
Ostracism, as noted by vickyace, seems the apt word, but there's also shunning, a practice used by some religious communities, e.g., the Amish, to brand those who have violated social norms as outcasts with whom community members should no longer have any relations.
Another word that has religious overtones, but is occasionally used in other contexts is excommunicated.
E.g., dictionary.com lists one of the definitions for excommunicate to be "to exclude or expel from membership or participation in any group, association, etc." and as a usage example lists "an advertiser excommunicated from a newspaper."
Isolation could also fit your sentence, as in the concept of "social isolation" which is a commonly used term in sociology research.
I would suggest exile.
From Wikpedia:
To be in exile means to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state, or country), while either being explicitly refused permission to return or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return.
pariahhood or pariahdom or status of pariahs
First, define pariah. The Free Dictionary says:
A social outcast: "Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard" (Mark Twain).
The Free Dictionary (link above) explains the origin of the word pariah. Breifly, the word comes from Tamil, and refers to a specific group which had very low caste in the Indian caste system. English travelers to India began to use the word in this sense as early as 1613. With the expansion of British colonial power in India, pariah came to mean any low-caste Indian, and "By the 1800s, pariah had come to be used of any person who is despised, reviled, or shunned."
Pariahhood is the state of being a pariah, and is a word in the Oxford English Dictionary. I give the definition in total, because you may not be able to use the link.
Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: pariah n., -hood suffix.
Etymology: < pariah n. + -hood suffix. Compare pariahdom n., pariahism n., pariahship n.
Thesaurus » = pariahdom n.
1907 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 16 Nov. ii. 14/1 Thus far no denial has been heard from the Mayor, and that silence is all that saves Biggy from political and official pariahhood.
1936 W. Faulkner Absalom, Absalom! 334 Rode the two horses through that night..in something very like pariah-hood.
1994 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 27 Sept. c16/3 The artist's grievances extend well beyond high-school pariahhood.
2001 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Sept. a21 Its political pariahhood in danger of being resurrected
pariahdom, again from the OED and again quoted in toto because you may not be able to use the link:
The state or condition of a pariah or outcast.
1877 J. A. Symonds in Cornhill Mag. Nov. 456 The men of whom I speak were conscious of pariahdom, and eager to be martyred in the glorious cause.
1894 Work & Workers June 258/2 Ostracism from the class carries with it..hopeless, entire pariahdom.
1906 W. J. Locke Beloved Vagabond (1908) vi. 68 They walked on together, and I dropped behind, suddenly realising my pariahdom.
1945 R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 19 This choice aggregation of desperadoes and ‘poor masterless men’, welded into that solidarity of pariahdom which is the outlaws' primary source of strength.
2000 Guardian 3 May i. 3/7 For Libya the prize was an end to pariahdom
You said that you might restructure the sentence. You could say:
Instead of physical obstacles, both are faced with societal resistance and the status of pariahs.
EDIT: @ab2 posted their answer as I as writing this one up.
The first word that came to mind for me was pariah.
pariah (pəˈraɪə; ˈpærɪə) n
(Sociology) a social outcast
(Sociology) (formerly) a member of a low caste in S India [C17: from Tamil paraiyan drummer, from parai drum; so called because members of the caste were the drummers at festivals]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
You could rework your sentence to say:
Instead of physical obstacles, both are pariahs faced with societal resistance.
Or:
Instead of physical obstacles, both are faced with societal resistance and pariahism.
In the second case you could also user pariadom (which I like better).
enmity positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will
Renegade would also fit.
From Cambridge Dictionary
a person who has changed their feelings of support and duty from one political, religious, national, etc. group to a new one
