What's in a name?

Oh dearie me, I've been neglecting my loyal readship of two recently! ;o)

Birdy has inspired me to get back to the keyboard with a couple of excellent posts on language and disability - "We seem to be determined to define others by our differences".

My comment in response to this was: "We pidgeon-hole people - Disabled, Black, Working Class, Immigrant, Shy, Pacifist, Right Wing, etc. None of us is as one-dimensional as the labels that are applied to us. We're all unique individuals."

That led me to think, how have I and am I labelled by those around me:

I was four-eyes at school, I am a vicar's daughter, I'm a wife (still sounds weird), I'm a bookworm, I'm a (part-time) blogger, I'm geeky, I'm a listener, I'm shy, I'm goofy, I'm closed, I'm asthmatic, I'm an employee, I'm an online gamer, I'm a jazz-lover, I'm a pacifist, I'm a procrastinator, I'm untidy, I'm strong.

Some of these I gladly apply to myself, some I know have been applied to me by others. Different people in my life would relate to a few or more of these labels. My family know a different side to me than my friends, than my work colleagues, than my doctor, etc.

Some, as you may have noticed, seem to perhaps contradict or cetainly seem incongruous sat next to each other. Should a cross-stitching jazz-lover play geeky online role playing games? ... why not? Should we fit into neat little pidgen-holes? ... heck no.

Would you recognise me in the street now you have read these labels? Do they give you a true insight into the person I am?

It's no different to applying such heavily biased labels such as black, disabled or immigrant. These labels don't give us an insight into the individual person or group of individuals to which they are applied.

Am I as guilty as the next person in applying labels to people ... unfortunately yes. But perhaps I will think a little harder next time before turning a human being into a one-dimensional word.

Happy Journeys