What compels us to define ourselves and others by often narrow parameters, putting us into categories because of our jobs, looks, religion or race? Is it because it’s easier? That going deeper into the core of our own or someone’s being might threaten our cherished beliefs or challenge our expectations? Labelling sets up an expectation of life that is often so compelling we can no longer see things as they really are. The expectation often gives us a false sense of familiarity towards something that is really new and unprecedented. We are in a relationship with our expectations and not with life itself. We use so many labels in a day without conscious thought. The student, the teacher, the therapist or the principals are labels that conjure up images of who those people may be, what they look like and how they might act.
We have even started labelling love. Love is a feeling that everyone has it least once in some type of way. Love is supposed to be the risk for anyone to take for anyone else. It’s supposed to feel like something you can’t describe, but you know it. So why does gender play a role? The world which we live in has an official definition of marriage which is labelled as a man and a woman’s marriage. We can’t label love. No matter what age or gender, it’s one’s own choice. The same goes with appearance. People label other people as slow, fat, bad, selfish, and lazy based on their appearance and not knowing what they are actually going through the inside. Every individual is unique and special. We don’t have the right to label an individual’s character.
Labelling is based on the stereotype which people hold towards others. Stereotyping determines how a person generally thinks about a particular person or a group. One of them includes that woman are responsible for conducting daily household chores. Household responsibilities are to be shared and not to be burdened upon someone as it is done generally. Labelling that it is a woman’s duty to handle the house responsibilities is unethical since it’s not just her duty. Education systems also create labelling among children. Is it really necessary to label intelligence? The grade system creates differences between children of the same age group and might even scar them for life. Young age is an age where a child grasps every bit of knowledge he is introduced to and how things work. Labelling just creates differences and differences create stereotypes.
Other people aren’t perfect. None of us are. People make mistakes or they simply just won’t agree with us and there is nothing wrong in it since everybody perceives things differently. Labelling is creating a world of people accusing each other and avoiding to look within. Labels should stay where they are supposed to – on a can.