Thursday, January 11, 2007
Why some people need labels
The world is full of labels. Are you gay or straight? American or Arab? Black or white? People have this overpowering need to categorize you into something they can wrap their brain around. Thing is, why is that necessary? Why not just get to know me and then make your judgements about who I am?
Since birth I have defied labels. I am of mixed heritage (half Chinese and half caucasian) and refuse to put an X next to either category on those government surveys. I pick “Other”, and if they don’t provide me with an Other to pick, I’ll put half an X in one and half in the other, so it looks like \ Chinese / Caucasian. Give me an Other or I’ll screw with your suvey dammit!
By refusing to label yourself, you force people to make the effort to find out for themselves who you are. I know my sweety’s family would have immediately rejected me (and her for that matter) had I announced that I was a lesbian upon meeting them. With their strong religious background, it just wouldn’t be acceptable to associate with “people like me”. Because I didn’t give them a label for them to judge me with, they were able to find out that I’m nice, generous, helpful, funny and occasionally moody. They love me now, and although I’m sure they have their suspicions about my “secret identity”, they overlook it to acknowledge the person I really am.
People like labels because it allows for quick judgements. They want to immediately know how to treat you. I just wish everyone would realize that it isn’t necessary. Labels are only on the surface. Underneath all that we are all people. Treat me as a person. Treat me how you would like to be treated. It’s such a simple concept, yet so hard to instill in others. What conflict would there be if we were to shed all labels? We would be equals. Now how divine would that be?
(13) Comments • Permalink
Categories: • Thinking aloud