Alessandra Ajraldi

Do we really need to define ourself all the time? Do we really need a name to define our social status, our relationships status, our job, our car, our politc view, religious view, our style, our taste, to define us musically, artistically… an so on…

Do I seriously need to label myself?

Apparently nowadays yes! Labeling is humanity’s pet peeve. We all have a tendency to classify things. Anything that is not labeled is an anomaly and as humans, we are annoyed and discomforted by anomalies.

It’s how we make sense of things. We separate the world into categories so we can understand it more easily. We’re also usually trying to be a part of a group or reject a group or both which means we’ll allow ourselves to fall into one category.

People claim that labeling is a bad thing , but people have the need  to “belong”. There for we label to have people to belong to and socialize with thanks to a natural right.

Labeling means naming. Things almost always have to be named to be known. The human mind is aware of many things, some of which are more similar than different and others that are more different than similar. To make sense of these things an intelligent person assigns them to categories based on similarities. These categories are usually given names. This is what labeling people means. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Not all labels are negative. Not all of it involves dehumanizing or objectifying others. And not all objectification is bad either. Sometimes these categories are not very intelligently designed. Crude categories and hasty generalizations are problems with organized human life. Yet it would be impossible to think without them. If you could live without thinking of categories of things you would probably not be able to think of very much. It is best to accept these limitations of your mind and try to be aware of them. Also try to be open to people who are different from the types you know and recognise that individuality is real too…!

Label Quotes :

“Was it Kierkegaard or Dick Van Patten who said, ‘If you label me, you negate me’?”- Wayne Cambell in “Wayne’s World”

“Labels are for cans, not people” – Anthony Rapp

“They stick you with those names, those labels – ‘rebel’ or whatever; whatever they like to use. Because they need a label; they need a name. They need something to put the price tag on the back of.”- Johnny Depp

“Man is the only critter who feels the need to label things as flowers or weeds.”-Unknown

“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot” than the stigma of conformity.” – Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

“It transcends a label. It’s a story of two human beings that are in love; get over the fact that it’s two men — that’s the point.” – Heath Ledger

“The American spirit wears no political label. In service to others and yes, in sacrifice for our country, there are no Republicans; there are no Democrats; there are only Americans.” – Senator John Kerry

“I’m fighting the label of “Black” actress simply because it’s very limiting in people’s eyes, especially people who are making movies.” – Whoopi Goldberg

“To label me an intellectual is a misunderstanding of what that is.” – Dick Cavett

“I wouldn’t eat things that didn’t have a label. So if you gave me an apple, I wouldn’t eat that because it didn’t have the exact nutritional value.” – Charlie Mileski

“That’s one of those things that will really hurt me personally, if I label a character or think about what it might do if it were to do well. I just try to do a good job with it.” – Luke Wilson

“I guess you’d call me an independent, since I’ve never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.” – Jackie Robinson

“Everyone wants to label guys, label me as a backup point guard, a guy that can’t get it done. Those are the opportunities where you have to step up and make it happen.” – Anthony Johnson

“God has not made any man wholly bad or wholly good; your likes and dislikes are inducing you to label them as such.” – Atharva Veda

“Business is business. If you label it, you limit yourself. Everyone’s welcome as long as you treat people with respect, are alternative-lifestyle friendly and spend money.” – Michael Tierney

“By the end, everybody had a label – pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary… If you had everything but a gun, you were a radical but not a revolutionary.” – Jerry Rubin

“In the years since I first met Paul I’ve had all sorts of labels stuck on me. Now the new label is “businesswomen”. Sure I have this business. But what I am, what I am myself, is a photographer.” – Linda Eastman Mccartney

“Blind tasting is the only way to taste. If you are looking at the label, you might give the wine a break, or any defect could possibly be seen in a positive light.” – Larry Stone

“A lot of people want to talk about Democrat and Republican. The label that matters most to me is Philadelphian.” – Sam Katz

“I do not come bearing a party label on my sleeve – or a quick fix in my back pocket. I do not come with a rigid ideology in my heart – or a soul that tells me to go it alone. I do not come to uproot tradition – or to be imprisoned by it.” – Ted Kulongoski

“Giving a phenomenon a label does not explain it.” – Taylor Caldwell

“Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let man label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.” – Mark Twain

“Maybe some labels are best left in the closet. Maybe when we label people ‘bride,’ ‘groom,’ ‘husband,’ ‘wife,’ ‘married,’ ‘single,’ we forget to look past the label to the person. …” Carrie Bradshaw Sex and the City: The Movie

“I’m used to the pressure. People can label me whatever they want, but I know what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to go out there and work. I’ve got a job. I need to go out there and keep it.” – Rocky McIntosh

“If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.” – Freeman Dyson

“I believe that fear is a mind virus that insists you’re either a success or a failure, and it’s passed from one mind to another until it becomes a habit. From an early age, you’re taught to feel: If I don’t succeed at everything I attempt, then I’m a failure as a person- and I’m scared to death of having to live with such an awful label.” – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, EXCUSES BEGONE!

“Love is just a word, a label; real love is unexplainable.” – Unknown

“I try to avoid a specific image. I seek to play as many different women as I can to avoid having a label put on me.” – Blythe Danner

“It’s fun seeing my label on someone’s behind – I like that.” – Calvin Klein

“Once you are labeled ‘the best’ you wantto stay up there, and you can’t do itby loafing around. If I don’tkeep changing. I’m history.” – Larry Bird

“People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.” – Vaclav Havel

“Why do we pigeonhole and label an artist? It is a sure way of missing the important, the contradictory, the things that make him or her unique.” – Lukas Foss

“Every mind which has given itself to self-expression in art is aware of a directing agency outside its conscious control which it has agreed to label ‘inspiration’.” – Norman Lindsay

“There is nothing worse that you can do to a human being in America today than give them a mental illness kind of label and tell them they need drugs and these children are 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years-old being treated in this manner,” – Peter Breggin

“Basically, women have to prove they are strong at all times. And then when they go on the attack, they have to not appear mean because those women often get the label of being catty.” – Julie Nixon Eisenhower

“I never wanted to do the same kind of movies over and over anyway, so my theory on it all is I’m just gonna try and dodge the label and keep doing what I am doing.” – Matt Damon

“Don’t label. That’s a matter of faith.” – Shea Brown

“In Washington, there’s always an effort to label people.” – Gale Norton

“I am concerned about the racial component as it relates to the media, but I also go a step further and I say to my people stop putting yourself into position where people can label you like that.” – Robert Fowler

“People always want to put a label on you; they always want to compare you to something.” – Carrot Top

“I don’t care what you label me as long as you call me president.” – Howard Dean

“If you strip off all your clothes, there’s likely a label somewhere on every piece saying where it was made, but you probably have no idea where the food you are about to put in your mouth came from. Are we really more concerned with what we put on our bodies than with what we put in them?” – Kim Anderson

“Those wearing tolerance for a label call other views intolerable” – Phyllis McGinley