You know, there has been a thing I’ve seen in the circles I have reside in that has provided a source of… irritation. Labels. Don’t worry, this won’t be an essay.
When I say Labels, I mean some word that you identify yourself as. Things like: Gamer, Gay, Furry, Bisexual, Autistic, Pansexual, Transgender, Crossdresser, Cosplayer… I could go on and list all sort of things like that. I don’t like them, and I don’t like people who use them constantly to explain their actions or behaviors.
A label is a static implementation of behaviors. A human is a dynamic set of behaviors. When someone labels themselves, they pigeonhole their own self into these ‘sets’ of how to walk, talk, and act. It makes you less of a person, and more of a cardboard cutout.
What infuriates me even more is when people say they’re some sort of label but make no attempt to meet the implied requirements of it. I have had people tell me they’re gamers because they played Mario once, or like Sonic Fanart. You are actively saying one thing and doing another. It comes off as pandhandling to people around you. It makes you seem shallow as you want people to see you as you want to be seen without the work. More of a cardboard cutout.
You are not a label, you are a person. You may share some flaws or perks from label x, but you are never label x; and never will be. You are, and always will be, you. Maybe it’s not the actual labels that I hate, but the people who use them as a mask, shield, or convenient way to describe and define themselves.
Once we drop this need to label ourselves something, we can grow as a person and no longer hide behind this facade of given titles. You are not a culmination of labels.
That is all.