Labels and roles are silly

Anybody ever read Zerubavel's book, The Fine Line? He gets into this topic, well sorta I guess, about how most distinctions we make in our every day lives are social constructs. Rather interesting book. He also questions the notion that a clear line can be drawn to separate 1 time or object or concept from another, and presents witty and provocative counterexamples in defense of ambiguity and anomaly.

 

So does that mean if the sun shines where nobody is there to see it's actually dark?

 

yeah im gonna have to agree with this one

 

in part, we like our little boxes. we like to compartmentalize the world and dissect it in an attempt to udnrestand it. most folks need to see the smaller parts before they can truly comprehend the whole.

we also like to band together. we like to find reasons to group ourselves with one another. the pride center on campus is awesome, i go because im bi and im an ally. my nerd friends are awesome, i love being a nerd. its another label, yeah its once i chooes and its based off personality not ancestry, but still. its a lable/role. i do understand why some people want to pull them all away, but they also let people to gather into groups they want to be in, and lets them identify more easily with others who are similar/similarly labelled

 

Interesting thread...labels..oh..hippies..freaks..religion..

these are all labels..who put a tag on your head..
a name..is a label..a speedy motorbiker...is a hero..
until he drives his ass towards a tree..and dies..
a name..is a label..and oh..just get yourself a label..
as soon you got that label..ideas go away..
out comes label worship..label bashing..
people have died for their labels..
the U.S.marine in Iraq who dies for the mighty U.S.A..
is that a label too then??how about his widow??
bringing flowers to his grave??
we are white,black,Chinese,Black American,Hispanic or whatever..
in all of us..beats a heart...we should go for peace...
but peace will never come...if you label this..label that..
if you have a gun..you're a radical..
if you want peace..you're a revolutionary..
Tiger

 

I'm against labeling,

But you are all dirty pot smoking hippies.

 

i think it's ridiculous to say you shouldn't see color, religion, culture, all that. i think it's time to end the ASSUMPTIONS and STEREOTYPES, but see people for the unique and colorful (forgive the pun) individuals they are is good and wonderful. i'm no more likely to stop seeing someone as being black as i am to stop seeing a redhead with a juicy behind.

 

heritage:

1.something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth; an inherited lot or portion: a heritage of poverty and suffering; a national heritage of honor, pride, and courage.





A person's race is part of their heritage. And I agree with TNS's post.

Bitching about labels is one of those disgusting stereotypical hippie rants that I've heard millions of times.

 

Labeling stuff is what sets humans apart from the other animals.


That, and getting funky.

:afro:

 

i think that it's not so much whether or not we label things/people/cultures, etc. but what we do with those labels, how we frame our thoughts around them. we have spoken and written language, so everything we speak or write is actually a label for an ideal. for all its tarnishing of objective purity, language has proven useful in a practical sense, so i think that the ditching of labels altogether probably wouldn't be very productive.

however, we can change our awareness about the labels we carry around. i created this small work of art, "internalize", years ago when i was beginning to acknowledge some of my own internalized labels. i refer to this little sculpture as "my personal porter for all my emotional baggage". the sculpture is yet unfinished, as i'm being rather picky about the images it contains. i do a lot of work with tags and labels, and their affects on consciousness, as well as the "box" of thinking that contains them.

here's a link to the sculpture in my gallery, rather than taking up space with a huge photo: http://www.hipgallery.com/photopost2/showphoto.php/photo/44143/cat/500/ppuser/145

"internalize" is an altered candy tin assemblage. it is an interactive work in that you have to open it and sift through the labels to experience the work. it contains tags on which are labels - "bitch", "mother", "welfare queen", "girlfriend", etc. - each with a relating image, drawing attention to the labels we carry around and apply to ourselves and how we visualize our thoughts about them.

thank you for acknowleging and honoring my inner stoner. namaste.

 

mamaKCita's right. It's not the label, it's the stereotype that causes problems.

 

I've never seen a Jew. I've seen men who follow the Jewish belief system. I've never seen a black man. I've seen a man with darker pigmentation and of different origin.

People can keep that same uniqueness, heritage, culture, and religion and all the pride that goes with it, without being categorized.

 

all those things, heritage, culture, religion and such are de facto categories. none of them negative. i've loved many many people in my life, all of them had identifiers that they were very proud to have as a part of them. these are not ugly things, these are beautiful differences. different isn't bad. it never has been.

 

rofl :barf: Did you get that straight out of a politically correct translator?

 

No. I actually believe that. I really do see the world through those eyes.

My first friend that I can remember was the only black kid on the block and one of the few that went to my school. Despite the fact that he stood apart from 90% of the people I knew, I never even thought about, or realized, that he was different from me until I was about 16 or so. To me, that's how it should be.

 

did you ever have the hots for a blonde? or did you simply see someone of the female sex with a hair shaft of a particular pale shade? i like men with dark hair and dark eyes, which ever category they come from. i married a man with dark hair and light eyes, because i loved him best. there's nothing wrong with it.

 

I honest to god have no predetermined preference in women. I either like what I see when I see it, or I don't. That's all there is to it.

 

you missed the point. i DO have a type. but when it came right down to it, type meant nothing. the inner man did. THAT'S how it should be.

 

I'll admit I haven't read all this but I just wanted to add that I don't really have a type. I've been attracted to allllll different types of people- I don't really think there is any type of person that I find more attractive then the next... it's just very individual for me.

 

I really hate that this turned into a "race" thread. I guess I was going more along the lines of if I look androgenous, does that mean that a guy who is attracted to me bisexual or homosexual? Because I like more feminine qualities in a man does that make me homosexual or bisexual? That's where things get so blurry...and I'm talking about the blurring of labels and social constructs.