Labels
We all use them to describe both ourselves, and others, around us but I do sometimes wonder why we persist in our desire to catagorise and control the myriad of human experiences.
On a personal level, I do sometimes take objection to the labels that get applied to me, mostly due to years of bullying as a child, led me to believe that parts of who I am are shameful and wrong. It's only in the last year that I've learnt to really accept who I am and become confident in expressing myself.
A discussion that took place afterwards made me stop and think about how different labels get applied to people, and sometimes we can't even be sure that what we mean by the label is actually how the other person will interept it.
Sure, some are easier than others to agree on, calling someone a cunt will always shock and offend (though how long before someone appropriates it as a term of enderment I wonder??) but other labels, like gay, camp, bi, bi-curious, effinimate, macho and so on might not mean the same thing to the same person.
Instead we're left to rely on things like body langauge, tone of voice, and context to decide whether we want to accept, or reject that label, and in the ever-increase world of text based communications, we lose that ability to easily judge.
So where does that leave us as a society? Should we start trying to restrict the use of labels by giving them narrower definitions? Should we look to abolish them in terms of limiting people by a label?
I can't say I have any answers right now to these questions, they're things to think about over time and maybe I'll return to this topic at a later date.
For now, I'll leave you with my favourite way to describe myself, I'm "Mostly Me", meaning that I am my thoughts, and my actions, with a little part of me based on how you chose to interept me. That last part will always be as unique as you are, so I can never be entirely myself!
On a personal level, I do sometimes take objection to the labels that get applied to me, mostly due to years of bullying as a child, led me to believe that parts of who I am are shameful and wrong. It's only in the last year that I've learnt to really accept who I am and become confident in expressing myself.
A discussion that took place afterwards made me stop and think about how different labels get applied to people, and sometimes we can't even be sure that what we mean by the label is actually how the other person will interept it.
Sure, some are easier than others to agree on, calling someone a cunt will always shock and offend (though how long before someone appropriates it as a term of enderment I wonder??) but other labels, like gay, camp, bi, bi-curious, effinimate, macho and so on might not mean the same thing to the same person.
Instead we're left to rely on things like body langauge, tone of voice, and context to decide whether we want to accept, or reject that label, and in the ever-increase world of text based communications, we lose that ability to easily judge.
So where does that leave us as a society? Should we start trying to restrict the use of labels by giving them narrower definitions? Should we look to abolish them in terms of limiting people by a label?
I can't say I have any answers right now to these questions, they're things to think about over time and maybe I'll return to this topic at a later date.
For now, I'll leave you with my favourite way to describe myself, I'm "Mostly Me", meaning that I am my thoughts, and my actions, with a little part of me based on how you chose to interept me. That last part will always be as unique as you are, so I can never be entirely myself!