We put them on our fruits, vegetables, soda cans, t-shirts and beauty products. Unfortunately, we also stick them on each other. Labels are attached to anyone and everyone. Immediately after meeting someone, we automatically pre-package that person's character, status and background into a neatly wrapped box.
I know I am guilty of it.
It's a fault that most people have. It's a natural tendency for us to stick with what we already know.
Here's the thing. None of us are products. We are living, breathing human beings with childhoods, dreams, fears and futures. What goes on in our heads can't be printed on a thin piece of paper and glued to our foreheads.
As people, we are so much more than that. Lives encompass a wild variety of personality, passion, wishes and goals etc. We can't be shoved into a predetermined mold.
Before college, I was home-schooled. When most people hear that, they automatically think I'm unsocialized, awkward and out-of-the-loop. First of all, I was not a hermit. I grew up with friends and I was involved in multiple extra-curricular activities. I wasn't deprived of interaction.
Because I don't want people to label me that way, I try not to label them.
The concept of stereotypes will disconnect us from one another. When I think I know people, it keeps me from actually bonding with them and getting to know them on a deeper level. It creates a mental barrier between communities, parties, beliefs and countries.
Labels create negative tension. They effect both the labeler and the labeled.
When a person is tagged as "slutty" or "stupid," it not only reflects the self-esteem of the labeler, but it also dehumanizes the person being stereotyped.
We slowly chip away at our wealth of personality when we do this. We have to build each other up instead.
Our identity is not in what people call us. We cannot be defined by preconceived notions. Our feelings change, desires might rearrange, hopes swerve and dreams rise out of places we didn't know existed.
Labels are no match for our beloved kaleidoscope of hearts and minds.
