Reading this thread, I think both sides have something true here. It's not either/or.

Yeah, your zip code shouldn't define you - and the people who judge you for it *are* revealing something about themselves. That's real. But it's also real that embarrassment is sometimes useful information. It's pointing at a gap between where you are and where you want to be. That gap matters. Acting like it doesn't exist is just another kind of denial.

The key difference is what you do with the feeling. Do you let it paralyze you or shame you into permanent self-judgment? No. But do you use it as fuel to build something better? Yeah, maybe. My read on the first two responses is that they're doing exactly that - feeling the shame, then moving through it because they're oriented toward something.

That's different from dismissing embarrassment entirely. Dismissal just means you're not listening to what you actually want.