Why Do Labels Matter?

Question

Why do labels matter? Why do people label people? So what if they are gay, straight, bisexual, black, native american, latin, white, emo, goth, punk, prep, jock, rich, poor, christian, muslim, jewish, satanist, smart or dumb? Why can't people accept people for who they are? It makes no sense.

Answer 1

It's not really something you can fight, because people inherently like to separate themselves from one another.

Whether it's a class thing or religious thing, people use these labels to form identities, because we are our identities.

Most of these identies are used to identify who we are, but most of the time, these labels only tell half of our story. They can show what experience in life may have been or what events or rituals we might participate in. But they cannot show what is going on the inside of your mind, spirit, or emotions.

For instance, if you are

A. The daughter of illegal immigrants from Mexico. And your parents are both migrant workers
B. You are 21 years old.
C. You are only about 5,3, brown skin, pretty black hair, and fairly thin.
D. You are considered attractive (lot of people run into you and say are hot, beautiful, guys always ask you out, and pretty)
E. You're family mostly are Catholic, but you are a Atheist (openly).
F. You are bi-sexual (secretly)
G. You never celebrated a quinceanera
H. You speak spanish, but it is very weak. But you speak great English and even good German and Greek.
I. You are not married and do not have any kids, nor have ever been preganant.
J. You are a millionaire.

From all of those I just mention, form a certain part of your idenitity.

People can identify several things about you (this is how stereotypes happen, which may be true or false).

1. We know that you're definitely hispanic and are probably Mestizo (Indian - White/Spanish ancestry), the brown skin is one clue and

2. The quinceanera could point to alot of things, like
a. you're 15 birthday didn't mean as much as or as less as your other birthdays. Even though, in quinceranera is a general rite of passage for girls.

b. you hate your birthday or quinceraneras.
c. You're family may have adopted typical American culture or traditions.
it could be a number of things.

3. If you are the only atheist in family (and openly for years), that shows a lot of individuality and courage, especially for being so young.


4. You are millionaire (not your parents), says that you are either in career that pays young people and insane amount of money (entertainer, inventor, or even business woman) or maybe you won a lottery.

5. You're probably a smart girl, since you know so many languages. But another thing that points to your family adopting american values and culture is that you do not speak Spanish.

People like to label people, because they can identify what s good or bad, right or wrong, good or evil, beneficial or useless, relevant or irrelavant. This how stereotypes might start from word of mouth, personal experiences, or mass media. People hear something about a person with a certain trait and then sometimes everyone who has those traits are considered this or that.

It could be a way of knowing who is and what is or idenitfying what people are. It could be unconscious way of having a caste system. It could be human nature/animal nature to identify things that are different or similar to one another.



We could say alot of things about from all the description I mention, but we don't ruly know who you are unless we get inside of your head.

Answer 2

1) People like to belong to something.
2) More importantly, people like to generalize others because it makes them easier to "understand" without having to really get to know them.

Answer 3

i couldn't say human nature but i think it has something to do with it...

Answer 4

They matter because people are stupid.