Even Hipsters Label Themselves

Y?all know I usually only write when I have some type of inspiration.  Today is no different. I?ve been thinking about labels and conversations around them.  Oddly, I?ve had two such conversations about labels this week. One friend was telling me about being labeled by someone she was close to.  She didn?t agree with the label but declined to argue her point in order to maintain a positive relationship with the person who labeled her.   Another friend refused to accept a label.   You and I would call a man who works at a fire station, wears a big helmet and yellow rubber jacket and slides down a pole during an emergency to put out fires ? we would call him a ?firefighter.?  There is no ambiguity in what he does. That is how clearly this person could be labeled.  But she won?t take her ?fireman? label because she ?doesn?t like labels.?   However, she does label herself in other ways.  It?s just this particular label that she may be struggling with. When I came out of the closet, I had no idea of the variety of lesbians that there were.  Butch, soft butch, boi, lipstick, Chapstick, granola, femme, high-femme? they are all labels that can be used to describe the type of lesbian you are.   Only none of them fit me. So I created my own label: rocker chick. Yeah, it?s not an exclusive-to-lesbians term.  And I don?t give a fuck.  It?s what I am.  I will write that shit on a name tag and wear it with pride. I know it?s all hipster right now to shun labels because you should see yourself as unique and one-of-a-kind.  But honestly, they are not your enemy. As a professional organizer, I love labels.   They help people know what?s inside the box.  Labels help people sort shit out in a way that makes sense to them.   I can write ?Toys? on a box of rubber bands because that?s what they are to me.  But you might write ?office supplies? or ?fasteners? on the box.  It doesn?t really matter what you call them.  They are still rubber bands. When someone wants to label you, it?s just a tool that they use to help them sort out in their own mind what you are.  It doesn?t change what you are.  It doesn?t cling to you, penetrate you or make you become something you aren?t.  It?s just a way that someone else is trying to order your place in their head.I think the first and only poem my mom ever taught me was this childhood gem: "Sticks and stones may break my bonesBut words will never harm me." While not exactly the same thing, the principle is the same: they are just words.Don?t be offended when someone puts a label on you.  Just be glad they have you on their mind.

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