By: Candice Crutchfield
As humans, the consistent
need to name the world around us has been a strong desire since gestures and
symbols from caveman times. This system of naming creates an identity within
ourselves and the world or people around us. In fact, a synonym for the word
label is “identify.”
According
to Oxford English Dictionary’s online database, the first definition of the word
“label” is “to affix a label to, mark with a label,” dating back to a1616.
Perhaps the most interesting finding, the dictionary only presents the word
“label” in this instance as a verb. “Label” as a noun doesn’t come about until 1871.
A label is clearly a noun, too. It can be a person, a place, or a thing, but
should it be?
Dr.
Tiffany Wang is a professor of communication and the basic course coordinator
for the college of Fine Arts at UM, and she helps answer this question. “I
think labels are powerful. You can choose them to define yourself, which I
think can be very empowering if you embrace the label, or label yourself in a
particular way; however, labels can also be very harmful.”
Wang
discusses how labeling others in a negative light with titles and descriptive
names that may be assumptions in turn builds a bridge or gap between the
labeled and labeler. Labels are used to understand people, places, and things,
and when people label others in this way, the labeler is misunderstanding
instead of comprehending.
Dr.
Jennifer Rickel, an English professor at UM, describes language as “something
that is always dynamic.” Rickel explains that labels are important in terms of
identity:
“They
can provide people with validation for who they are as an individual and as part
of a group, and that is important when it comes to recognition, having
political access to things and being respected. It can become problematic of
course when that label becomes not just something that is affirming, but
something that is either used in a derogatory way toward them or it is kind of
limiting them or ‘pigeonholing’ them. For other people they only become that
one label.”
This
touches base on the importance of remembering that before all other labels
“human” came first. Identity is an important aspect for everyone. Understanding
one’s self is not easy. So, understanding others is even more mind-boggling.
Rickel explains, “We are not, as people so simple, as one singular label. So, I
think that is one of the limitations of labels. If we don’t look at the way
different identification categories can intersect and in real life allow us to
be the complex people we are.”
Dr.
Virginia Bare, a psychology professor at UM, says, “labels are a way to make
sense of the world around us. I think they have always been sort of positive
and negative and continue to be so.”
Bare
talks about how labels can also be positive in the sense that people who
identify with the same labels can more readily understand each other. “Labels
can also help us sort of see how other people are similar to us. If we identify
with a certain label then we have other people that are like us and fit in the
same kind of group or concept.”
This act of identifying with
labels is “a relatively recent phenomenon,” according to Bare. “There seems to
be more discussion of labels and what they mean. I mean, even just in the work
that I do, like with mental disorders, they really only kind of recently got actual
names as opposed to just these sort of vague hysteria and these weird
phenomenon that we were trying to understand.”
As
humans, when we are trying to understand these mental disorders placeholder words
are used to describe these people with mental disorders. A study by BMC Health
Services Research titled “250 labels used to stigmatise people with mental
illness” indicates that the stigmas associated with mental disorders can barricade
people from seeking help. Some of the most used words to describe mental
illnesses are crazy, disturbed, psycho, spastic and confused. All of these
phrases represent misunderstandings of mental illness, and all of these words
are labels used everyday.
Dr. Mike Hardig is a biology professor at UM. He
says labels are “handy for reference, so we can have a conversation about
something if we both know the term, we know were talking about the same thing.
Labels are handy for correspondence and communication.”
But
why does this human need to name objects and situations exist? Hardig says, “We
all desire order, we want to order the objects in our world. Like
classification, we want to identify the good things, the bad things, the good
people, the bad people with labels we can use those to organize our
classification scheme. We refer to objects by definitive labels and then we can
place them in our scheme or our organization.”
On
the negative side of our labeling madness Hardig says, “A label tells you
nothing about that which is labeled.” Hardig compares a label to a dewy decimal
in the library. The dewy-decimal directs the person to the book or to the
knowledge, but the knowledge is not obtained by just knowing the label.
Another example is when you are a child and
first learning to speak. According to popsugar.com “ball”, “bye”, “cat” and “uh
oh” are some of the first words babies say. In turn, just because a child can
say a word does not mean a child understands all the bridges and terms
associated and defining that word.
People are going to say what they want, when they want with no regards to other people’s feelings. Some people think society has become “too sensitive,” but perhaps those people are just making an excuse for their own negative associations or misunderstandings of certain labels or concepts. The only solution is to be aware. Be aware of the labels and personal identification system that is self-made, and be aware of what others may identify with or label themselves as. Ask one’s self, “is this derogatory” before speaking. Labels will always be good and bad, and so will people.
People are going to say what they want, when they want with no regards to other people’s feelings. Some people think society has become “too sensitive,” but perhaps those people are just making an excuse for their own negative associations or misunderstandings of certain labels or concepts. The only solution is to be aware. Be aware of the labels and personal identification system that is self-made, and be aware of what others may identify with or label themselves as. Ask one’s self, “is this derogatory” before speaking. Labels will always be good and bad, and so will people.
