Labels

Rich, poor, gay, straight, married, single...the list goes on. Everything and everyone has its own label to separate and distinguish it from everything else around it. But why? Why do we feel compelled to categorise and pigeonhole?

Starting with the advocation of women's rights in the 1870's and picking up steam over the last 140 years our current developmental trend is leading us towards principles of equality and non-discrimination. These are two fairly lofty goals, and I believe that they're crucial for positive societal development, but how does our seemingly overwhelming compulsion to label fit in with these ideals?

The pursuit of equality and non-discrimination is supposed to be leading us towards becoming a more unified and cohesive society, but isn't labelling and pointing out all of our differences actually working to divide us further? Stereotyping has become a way of life - even my host asks me to assign labels to my blogs - yet there is a risk that our labels will become a self-fulling prophecy in themselves. Think about it - if you're told that you are something or are part of a 'group' doesn't that make it more likely that you'll conform to the expectations associated with that?

Why do we do it? Is it useful? Our desire to label comes from our historical and social preconceptions of people who on the face of it fit into certain groups. This might be useful when deciding on the tax code, but if we're trying to become more unified and tolerant as a society, I don't think that labelling people generates many benefits.

As a character in 'Up in the air' says, "I stereotype - it's faster." Is efficiency really worth it in the end if we have to compromise our pursuit of equality?