Amanda Jung/ Staff Writer
We live in a society that is comfortable with the idea of labeling everyone. Whether it’s your gender, your religion or your sexuality, you are forced to fall under a certain category and we’re so used to this concept that most of us don’t mind answering these questions when we’re asked.
When you’re filling out a survey, it will ask for your gender. It’s so easy for most of us to check the male or female box. But for others, this task is much more complicated.
When taking a standardized test, we are asked to bubble in our race. This simple question about the color of our skin is a prime example of labeling. Think about it for a second. Has someone ever labeled you or put you into a category that you didn’t feel like you belonged in?
I’m sure that we’ve all been there. Maybe they didn’t mean it in a bad way. We have just been trained to put people in categories our entire lives. In fact, we all live in categories.
Labeling doesn’t always have to be seen as a bad thing. In some cases, it’s extremely liberating. We live in a generation where more and more people are coming out and are proud of their sexuality.
However, labeling is also very dangerous. According to Psychology Today, “categorical labeling is a tool that humans use to resolve the impossible complexity of the environments we grapple to perceive. Like so many human faculties, it’s adaptive and miraculous, but it also contributes to some of the deepest problems that face our species.”
A question remains whether labeling people or situations in order to help us understand something complex is fair or not.
When it comes to the LGBTQ community, it’s often a much scarier world out there. I have friends who identify as straight, gay and bisexual. But I also have some friends who don’t dare use a term to define who they are allowed to love.
The world has become more accepting of homosexual and bisexual people. But, we’ve also seen increased acts of hatred towards these people such as the Orlando Nightclub shooting.
If we are teaching our children that it’s wrong to be a certain way, this could cause a lot of problems. We have a responsibility to the LGBTQ community to show them that not only do they have the people within that community by their side, but people outside of it as well.
We might fall into different categories, but this doesn’t have to decide the type of people we hang out with or advocate for.
In my opinion, I think that people should be able to label themselves LGBTQ if they choose, but no one is at all required to categorize themselves.
However, I do recognize that it’s nice to have a community; people that you are on the same page with and can help you through the hard times.
We all have friends, family and peers that are a part of the LGBTQ community, and it’s our job to support them so that the future generations have it a little easier than everyone does right now.
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The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
Photo taken from Flickr.
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