I Don't Care

Once you label me, you negate me
~Soren Kierkegaard~
 

I don't care if you're gay or straight.  I don't care if you're black or white.  I don't care if you're christian or Jew.  I don't care if you're male or female.  I don't care if you're fat or thin, beautiful or ugly, old or young.  I don't care if you're single, married for a long time or divorced. I don't care about anything one might be that would be considered a label.

I hate that people can't be who they are without having to be lumped into a category.  Back in the 50's and beyond, women who stayed home, took care of the house and raised the children were called 'housewives'.  During the women's movement of the 60's and 70's, that became a derogatory label.  For a couple of decades, those women (and I was one) didn't know what to call themselves.  Now, they're called 'stay at home moms' or SAHM for short.  Why is one label unacceptable and the other perfectly ok?  Could it be that one label is okay and the other not because one clearly includes raising children whereas the other does not?

In some ways, I liken labeling to profiling in that you lump people together based on certain demographics and then assume (this word fits PERFECTLY here) certain things about those people.

What do I care about?  I care about the kind of person you are and the way you treat other people.  I care about the choices you make that tells me you know the difference between right and wrong.  I care about having respect for all people based simply on the idea that they are a human being regardless of any label they might have.

Maybe that's what it's all about.  Labeling gives some a reason to not respect another person and for that reason alone, I will never like labels.  But, of course, that's just my opinion.