The other day I was walking up to my apartment, and on the ground I saw several post it notes with the word “poop” on them. As I got closer, I realized each post-it was next to a piece of dog or cat poop. I didn’t understand at first, but I soon realized that the post-its must have been placed there to help people avoid stepping in the poop. I found this to be so hilarious and confusing that I had to find a way to use it for this week’s visual portfolio. First of all, I don’t see why someone would take the time to make these post-its instead of just cleaning up the poop. Their solution is extremely illogical and does not fix the problem in any way. So I decided to use this hilarious moment in my week as a metaphor for labeling.
Labeling is something that stereotypically categorizes people which not only has a negative effect on society, but may negatively influence the actions and self perception of the individual. Some people argue that labeling helps to group people and it serves as a common language that allows us to understand who people are. I see labels as being constricting titles that narrow our perspective in how we view individuals. Labeling perpetuates stereotypes and it assumes that people can be defined by one specific title. So, by putting a post-it next to the poop, you are not fixing the problem, you are actually making it worse-you are simply taking extra time to unnecessarily put a label on something! Therefore, instead of understanding people’s true identities, we limit ourselves through labels and assumptions, which only perpetuates the problem.
I know my metaphor is far-fetched and comical, so I’ll give an example of labeling which exists in our world today. Our society has stereotyped men of minority races as deviant, aggressive, irresponsible and criminal. These labels are extremely harmful and create racist ideologies in our society. Also, when people are labeled, they are more likely to act in that role and fit into that stereotype because they have heard so many times that it is a part of their identity. This is known as the labeling theory. In this example of labeling, the cycle of racial hierarchy continues because the labels are never broken. In order to move past racism, we need to break away from stereotyping and labeling. We need to get to the root of the problem, and look past the ideologies that have been pushed upon us through images over time. Labeling perpetuates the problem- it in no way fixes it. So it’s time to throw away the post-it in order to start fixing the problem!
What are similar examples of how labeling affects the actions of the individual being labeled?
What are ways in which we can decrease the amount of labeling in our society?