I sorta like labels. Except when other people are trying to pick your label for you, or saying that just because you had another label before you can’t have a new one, or that the labels they don’t like aren’t “real,” or treating people like they’re nuts when they feel like they haven’t found a label that fits them, or not letting people make up their own labels/choose to be label-less, or won’t let the meanings of the labels evolve with the language and culture… yeah, I see what you mean.
🙂 I think labels can be awesome and amazing – but I agree, it seems to only work when you get to choose your own label, or lack of one – and you don’t judge others for their own labels, or lacks of them.
i like name tags. but anyway, the thing with labels is that you don’t have to choose just one. the way i see it, you are the sum of all your labels. even if one of these labels just says “don’t want no label here”.
Your comics have meant so much to me since I first came across them. I’ve reached the point where I’m able to throw away my box. That’s lead to being more comfortable in my own skin than I’ve ever been before. Labels are such loaded language. Even if though I have found a few I identify with, it’s nice to toss them out the window and just say ‘I’m me and I like people’ instead.
I always enjoy reading your comics and commentaries. Keep up the fabulous work!
Thanks soo much! I think some labels can work, and can be really empowering too, but I think that when I wrote this I just really couldn’t work out how any of them would ever work – it’s certainly liberating to be able to throw them all away and say, “i’m me and i like people” such a good way of expressing it 🙂
I try my darndest hardest to not label other people, but I have to say, that for me, getting a label has made me feel more safe. Even though that label is BPD, and it has a lot of mistrust and misjudging attached to it. It made me feel safe to KNOW. I think that is why we have the urge to label everything/one around us. We really want to feel safe aka. not be surrounded by the unknown. Life might not work that way, but the urge is there, egging us on anyway 🙂
yep agree! It was certainly a big wake up call for me when i discovered the trans label, and how it could be used for maaaany different types of genders – like suddenly i wasn’t just a failed girl, but i was me, and i could name it, and embrace it.
I like the idea of having a name for who I am, how I feel. Those names are genderqueer, pansexual, depressive, multiple/plural, and anxious. They help me define and discern one feeling from another. Of course, I picked them myself, so it’s irrelevant. I’ve had labels picked for me before. Confusedsexual. Weird. Freak. Not nice.
I sorta like labels. Except when other people are trying to pick your label for you, or saying that just because you had another label before you can’t have a new one, or that the labels they don’t like aren’t “real,” or treating people like they’re nuts when they feel like they haven’t found a label that fits them, or not letting people make up their own labels/choose to be label-less, or won’t let the meanings of the labels evolve with the language and culture… yeah, I see what you mean.
🙂 I think labels can be awesome and amazing – but I agree, it seems to only work when you get to choose your own label, or lack of one – and you don’t judge others for their own labels, or lacks of them.
Oh man, WORD. To ALL of it.
i like name tags. but anyway, the thing with labels is that you don’t have to choose just one. the way i see it, you are the sum of all your labels. even if one of these labels just says “don’t want no label here”.
Your comics have meant so much to me since I first came across them. I’ve reached the point where I’m able to throw away my box. That’s lead to being more comfortable in my own skin than I’ve ever been before. Labels are such loaded language. Even if though I have found a few I identify with, it’s nice to toss them out the window and just say ‘I’m me and I like people’ instead.
I always enjoy reading your comics and commentaries. Keep up the fabulous work!
Thanks soo much! I think some labels can work, and can be really empowering too, but I think that when I wrote this I just really couldn’t work out how any of them would ever work – it’s certainly liberating to be able to throw them all away and say, “i’m me and i like people” such a good way of expressing it 🙂
I likes me some humans, I do.
mmmhmm, me too!
I try my darndest hardest to not label other people, but I have to say, that for me, getting a label has made me feel more safe. Even though that label is BPD, and it has a lot of mistrust and misjudging attached to it. It made me feel safe to KNOW. I think that is why we have the urge to label everything/one around us. We really want to feel safe aka. not be surrounded by the unknown. Life might not work that way, but the urge is there, egging us on anyway 🙂
This is a key distinction. Labelling yourself can be very empowering. Labelling others takes that power away from them.
yep agree! It was certainly a big wake up call for me when i discovered the trans label, and how it could be used for maaaany different types of genders – like suddenly i wasn’t just a failed girl, but i was me, and i could name it, and embrace it.
I like the idea of having a name for who I am, how I feel. Those names are genderqueer, pansexual, depressive, multiple/plural, and anxious. They help me define and discern one feeling from another. Of course, I picked them myself, so it’s irrelevant. I’ve had labels picked for me before. Confusedsexual. Weird. Freak. Not nice.