LOOKING BEYOND THE LABEL

 

Despite many attempts by others over the years, I refuse to be ‘labelled’. To succumb to this would, for me, mean that I have become identified with a particular group or belief.

This desire, and the ability, to label people has become one of the root causes of many of the problems we face within society. By virtue of the fact that labels have a meaning, they are dangerous.

We all know of someone who is obsessed with labels; they build their own sense of self-worth on what is perceived to be the best wine, clothes, car, neighbourhood, school. This is what the marketeers bank on when tempting us to make decisions about how we go about our lives. In the relatively affluent western-world we are fortunate to have that choice. The vast majority of the world, where their daily existence is at best tenuous, is not blessed with such an option.

Labels also enable us to make judgements about others, both good and bad, and this in turn invariably impacts on how we behave towards them, often unfairly. It is much easier to complain about what we do not like, than to appreciate what we do like.

Human behaviour is significantly influenced by the way others label them. Studies have shown that there is a link between a person’s experience of being labelled and how they perceive themselves, so much so that negative labelling can be connected to subsequent deviant criminal behaviour; everyone thinks I am a bad person, so I may as well behave badly.

Where our preponderance towards attaching labels goes awry it is that it encourages the tendency to lump diverse groups of people together, effectively taking away any sense of individual identity. From this we experience the beginnings of discrimination, which is evident in the language used; words such as terrorist, fat, ugly, druggie, slut, all immediately conjure up a negative bias towards that person and can impact on how we react towards them. Often such labels are based on little more than hearsay, or another person’s prejudice.

When someone is labelled a racist for example, we must consider what is really meant by that. Is it that they are demonstrating a negative attitude or behaviour towards someone because of their race, or are they expressing a view about a situation which others perceive to be racist because of their own bias?

Conversely, use of words such as genius, clever, smart, attractive, educated, make us less likely to think badly of that person. But, not all criminals are ill-educated, dirty and poorly turned out.

A person’s self-image is strongly tied to the words and labels they use. Words are powerful, and the pressure of living up to other people’s expectations can cause severe mental stress. Labelling tells us as much about those being labelled, as well as those doing the labelling.

As a Samaritans listening volunteer, all too often callers talk to me about feeling a failure or not being good enough. This is invariably because that is what they have been told by others. Hear something often enough and you start to believe it. Hitler is proof of that.

One you start to believe the truth of the labels that have been assigned to you by others and begin to believe that you are not capable of change, you start to reinforce the assumption that you cannot achieve or do certain things.

Whilst labelling is a useful tool to enable us to catalogue information and experiences, human beings are not items on a supermarket shelf that need to be labelled.