Day 344: When You Label Me, I Take it as a Compliment

A friend who commented on yesterday’s blog, mentioned the persistence some people (myself included) have with the use of labeling to describe people. While there was a time in my life when I too believed labels to be limiting. Fortunately, I threw out my hippie skirts, starting shaving again and allowed myself the freedom to just not really like the Grateful Dead or Phish. These days I believe in labels if only because I don’t see a way around them. I agree, they can be harmful or limiting if used with malice or bias, but they can also just be a part of our culture that is as inescapable as a Spring shower.

Try to describe someone you know without using labels. Aren’t adjectives just a more generic label? Even someone like me, who routinely defies any logical category is an “iconoclast” or “contradictory.” While those labels are far less narrowly defined than say calling someone a prude or a snob, the same principle applies. I think all of us carry a multitude of labels. No one is solely one thing and that is where the negativity comes in. To describe a woman as “just a housewife” is to ignore that she is also a wife or mother, master multi-tasker, closet alcoholic, fabulous cook, painter, amateur mechanic, etc., you get the idea.

When we speak of labeling someone, we often assume this to be a bad thing. In my blog, it might have had a bit of that edge to it, but the real implication is that to assume any one of us is only one thing is to blind ourselves to our true nature. I am just as guilty as the next judgmental fool who might deem someone a jackhole or airhead, but it should be assumed that this label is only in reference to limited contact.

So why not embrace our labels? Should we not aspire to be as many things as we can be? I am a woman, wife, loudmouth, sports aficionado, sentimentalist, cynic, baker, cat lover, friend, iconoclast, liberal, writer, teacher, student, bitch, lover, volunteer, snob, humanist, singer, drinker, liar, truth-seeker, and yes, I am also a labeler. Without those labels, I might not be able to discover everything that I am and want to be. So go ahead, judge me, I take pride in being a person defined not by a single label, but by them all.