It’s My Label!

I would rather not prefer to be a indescribable, nameless entity, but sometimes a person becomes a little fed up with the territoriality and vindictiveness with which people hoard their labels. With every major identity group (e.g. religious, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, occupation), there are labels used in common parlance to help us drawing at least soft lines say what we are.

There are two aspects of note to this process that are inevitable and ever-frustrating. The first is that our labels are essentially positive labels; we define ourselves as who we are, rather than who we are not. So “I am a Christian”, “I am European”, or “I am an academic” are common statements of identity. Taking this construct to one of its natural conclusions, of the most psychologically jarring things someone can go through is involuntary being labeled as non-what-they-think-they-are. I would venture to call this identity excommunication: as with the religious version, its comes with all of the fun shaming, exclusion, and boxing.

The other process is comparing the ideal that a particular label represents and what its various manifestations in reality. If I were a perfect x-religionist, I would magically have insight into the interstitial meaning in scripture, the history of discourse on faith and practice, and all points of ambiguity would dissipate with my footsteps. If I were a perfect x-ethnicity, I would have a deep and wide understanding of my mother tongue, I would understand regional cultural vernaculars, and I would be able to make references to classical artistic expression in my culture relatively easily. If I were a perfect x-worker, I would know the office lingo, the human resources manual as well as exactly where the rules could be bent, and my career would be an incarnation of best practices. The reality is always short of the ideal, and claiming the mantle of “a true such-and-such” is dangerous, and dangerously common.

I think back to a time before people had last names, and where people of multiple talents were not highly specialized into efficient occupational groups. But alas, I live the labels I choose, and I would be loathe to let others exclude me.