Vocational lycée (upper secondary school) teachers are characterised by the bivalence of certain subject groups “which differentiates them from ‘certified’ teachers (professeurs certifiés), making them closer to the ‘professeur des écoles’ status” according to the General Inspectorate in 2012. Focusing on the largest subject group, literature and history, this article sets out to examine the impact of this bivalence on the construction of teachers’ professional identity. The methodology relies on a nationwide questionnaire-based survey (n=1338) and fourteen interviews. According to whispers in the educational institution, joint literature and history course teachers make components of their stigmatisation (type of pupil intake, place of work and dual subject specificity) the key component of their professional identity. The guarantors of Humanities in vocational lycées thus cultivate their bivalent singularity by exploiting the freedom brought by their marginalised status within France’s education sector.