Labels

-Why is it that we always get labelled ?

You all must know what it is to be labelled. All of us have been labelled something in our life time. Initially when I started writing the blog post, it was more on girls being labelled, but when I re-read what I wrote, it struck me as not being completely true. It’s not about being a boy or a girl, the society will label you if you are different. If you are someone who puts forth their opinions, you become extremely head strong or too opiniated, if you express your anger, you have anger issues. If you, God forbid, cry, especially if you are a boy, you are weak and if you are a girl, its either “that time of the month” or you are too emotional. The adjective always has a TOO to it.

If you are gender fluid, you are labelled, if you are pro/anti-government, you are labelled, if you are pro/anti LGBTQ community, you are labelled. The cause really doesn’t matter. If you don’t conform, you have to live with a tag which can sometimes have frightening implications.

Labels vary from men to women. If a husband respects his wife’s wishes or listens to her opinion in front his parents, he is a “Joru ka gulam” or HENPECKED, if he doesn’t drink or smoke, a lot of people think he is not macho enough. If he expresses himself, he is again either too emotional or sentimental. If he has a particular point of view which doesn’t match with his colleagues or his friends then he is too rigid and not a team player, because he doesn’t believe in mob mentality or because he thinks different. Being different becomes a crime especially in our Indian society. Furthermore, God save you if you are a woman and are different. From being too emotional, sentimental, rigid and too-what-not, women in the Indian society are labelled at the slightest deviations. If you don’t want to get married and want to concentrate on your career, you are too ambitious, if you don’t want kids then you are SELFISH ( no less than the POPE proclaimed so ) or you are not fulfilling the purpose of your life (cause what is a woman if not a child bearing machine). If you don’t know how to do house hold chores or, gasp, DON’T KNOW HOW TO COOK, you've not got the right parenting. The purpose of this blog is not to state the obvious, because all of us know this. Most of the times we are TOO… something. The purpose is to ask those people WHY, why is it so important to label someone? Can’t a person just be something and be known just by their name. Isn’t labelling a subtle form of judging? Humans are not perfect beings. Especially in today’s time, can we just be kind and not judge people? As I write this, I know lots of times, I do this too, sometimes perhaps inconceivably, but I am trying, trying to be less judgemental, more kind. Do you think you can try too?