I'm
not the only person who has noticed this. Labels change how we view
people. It takes about five minutes after we have met someone to form
an opinion of them. Five minutes to put them in a box. Five minutes
for us to make them 'fit' somewhere in our heads. "Creative."
"Chick magnet." "Nice girl." "The
Extrovert." "The quiet one." It's not always bad to
'label' people. If they're creative then they're creative, yes? But
it's not always good, either.
I
think sometimes we trap the deeper and more complex parts of our
aquaintances in these boxes. In making them fit into our one,
non-comprehensive label, we abandon any other characteristics they
may have as less important, and not as much a part of 'them'. Yes,
your new aquaintance is an extrovert. So? Half the population of the
planet is too. She is not 'the extrovert', she is 'an extrovert'.
Congratulations. Well done. Your skills of perception are unrivalled.
No.
Before
you label her on sight, go deeper. Go deeper with everyone. There is
more to every person in the universe than meets or has met the eye,
even after years and years of aquaintance. Don't box a complex soul
into a single word or few. It isn't right.
Not
only that.
Labelling
others doesn't just affect our perception of them, it affects their
perception of themselves. When someone is categorised as one thing
over and over and over again, they begin to doubt their ability to be
anything else. The label becomes an identity, and it is hard to
escape. Being called Leslie all your life makes it difficult to come
to terms with the fact that you are actually a Helen.
Do
you see?
Labels
are not only entirely inadequate to capture, in full, 'the person'.
They are also, most often,
Wrong.
