By Udita Nair
Are labels harmful or helpful? The answer is neither. Labels will always differ from person to person, based on their own experiences and situations they are put in. In this article, I want to focus on labels of sexuality.
Labelling one’s sexuality has always been a stigmatised procedure. Often, people may not choose to label themselves due to internalised homophobia, however in many circumstances, people prefer to be unlabelled. The concept of being unlabelled when considering sexuality is arduous for a large portion of society to understand. This is because labels themselves have been criticized and have taken a long time for people who are not a part of the queer community to ‘grow accustomed’ to. Labels have helped numerous people find comfort in their sexuality, and having a clear explanation (the label) has allowed them to understand themselves better and where they may fit in the community.
However, it cannot be denied that due to the abundance of labels, they can also put pressure on a person who may not fit the depiction of that label exactly. For example, when a person chooses a label, they are not bound to it forever. They may realise that they fit into another label or no label at all. Staying unlabelled does not mean that person is not a part of the LGBTQ+ community, they just don’t use a set label to define them. Countless people, within and outside of the community, may not recognise unlabelled individuals as valid due to a misunderstanding of its purpose; people who remain unlabelled are a part of the LGBTQ+ since they do not label themselves as straight. Furthermore, there are instances where people may force labels on others just so that their identity ‘makes sense’ to them. This makes the use of a label very harmful as it pushes one's beliefs on another, or even going as far as to say being unlabelled is a label.
This is why the question of whether labels are harmful or helpful cannot be answered. Sexuality and gender are in itself a spectrum, there are no set value or explanation one needs to be a part of the community, as long as they know they are not a cis-gendered heterosexual. Labels are not harmful by themselves, only when used as a weapon. Labels are not meant to alienate or restrict people into boxes. It is meant to open the box, leave the closet, or whichever ‘coming out’ metaphor you want to consider. Individuals based on their own preferences and experiences find solace in labels. Their label may help them find a community of people similar to them. At the end of the day, a label is not a choice, it is a finding of self, and to many they find themselves in no label.
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