Article written by Dylan Bell (guest writing for culture)
Labels exist in every aspect of our world and, for the most part, human history has been obsessed with labeling everything we see, whether right or wrong. Whilst labeling has existed for hundreds of years, recently a new occurrence has reared its head: people rejecting labels or creating their own independent from the rest of society.
To clarify, people rejecting labels and forming their own has always existed, but only ever in small groups and, in the past, they were usually… taken care of quickly. But, because all out murder is somewhat frowned upon these days, the number of people creating their own labels has grown exponentially.
I am a member of the LGBT+ community, and it is no secret that this community has no shortage of labels for just about everything. Now, I am not here to talk about whether I think each and everyone of these labels is a good or bad thing. I’m not prepared for that rabbit hole. Instead, I want to talk about if the whole idea of labels is a good thing, and already I can hear screams of protest from both sides of this argument. Some will shout, “Labels aren’t necessary, just let people be!” and others will protest, “But it lets people express themselves!” And, the truth is, you are both right.
The simple fact is, words have power and meaning beyond our understanding, and labels are a part of that. The whole idea behind labeling in the LGBT+ community is a lot simpler than others would think. (Disclaimer: this is simply my take on this issue and not an objective fact, so calm your farm.) The reason labels are so important to the LGBT+ community is because, for a large portion of history in the majority of the world, we had nothing. The only labels we had were severely hurtful and, in most cases, the end of our lives. We were, for a very long time, considered nothing more than an illness that could be cured. The pain that creates reverberates throughout the generations. So, we have created our own labels to give ourselves a sense of belonging and being because, to this day, we still have those old labels of pain and hate and our labels help us to fight that.
At the same time, the LGBT+ community are not the only people to claim labels in the name of pushing away hate and prejudice. For many black people across the world, the N word strikes hate into their hearts, and rightfully so. However, you often see them use this word themselves against each other. Why? Well, the answer is so simple that even they may not notice it. They took that word, in the same vein that gay men took the word faggot, and used it to empower themselves to make the word hurt less. As I said previously, words have power and meaning beyond our understanding, and this is a perfect example of it.
In saying all that, labels are not a simple cure for everything and, in some cases, they can escalate matters. I once again turn to the LGBT+ community for this because, although I believe and stand by my statement that labels help and empower us, they can become overwhelming. Something I have noticed in the LGBT+ community is there are more labels than there are people, and many of these labels are superfluous. Another negative aspect to all of this is when someone outside – or even inside – the community gets a label wrong, whether by accident or on purpose, people get furious and attack the so-called wrong doer. I have been on the end of this myself. Now in some cases, I can understand this. However, this happens to an alarming degree, and over trivial things. I am not saying that your label is not important, or that people don’t have a right to be whoever they want to be, but to attack people who genuinely do not know better is simply not okay. Of course, the LGBT+ community is not the only community to have this negative part of themselves with labels, but they are the most prevalent.
One community that has some labeling problems worth mentioning is the feminism community. I know, a man criticising feminism, how dare I. Obviously, I have no issue with the concept of feminism, but to say they have no issues is flat out wrong, and one aspect of that is labeling. Feminism has a somewhat negative label in the present day because of reasons I am not going into detail here, but it definitely has negative effects on people putting the term “feminazi” onto any woman who dares question a man's authority. Clearly, this is incredibly wrong, however to say the label “feminazi” cannot be applied to some people is ignoring simple facts. I am not saying these labels are right or wrong, but it is important to be aware of these labels and why they occur.
Another negative connotation with labels I would like to touch on is the fact that people are, generally speaking, suggestive creatures and our minds can be trained and hardwired to think and believe certain things. Labels, when used incorrectly, can have a negative effect on the human psyche. For example, you call someone lazy enough (even if they aren’t) and they will eventually become lazy, or call someone fat enough and, despite what the truth may be, it will be all they see.
So, all of this still hasn’t answered the question, "Are labels a good thing or not?" And the answer is, it depends. I will repeat myself. Words have power and meaning beyond our understanding, and in small doses they can build and mend pain that has existed for generations, but if it goes too far it can only hurt people. So, all I can say is be careful with what and who you label. It could empower or destroy a person’s entire being.
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