What's wrong with labels?

[OccamsRazor]

On this forum and outside I have heard many people saying that they do not wish to use labels to describe themselves?

The question is, why not?

Specifically relating to the forums, many people say that they do not wish to join usergroups (such as 'Christian', 'Agnostic', etc.) because they do not wish to use these labels in describing themselves.

The reasons I see for not wishing to do this are as follows:
1. You feel that such labels attach connotations that you do not wish to align yourself with.
2. You think that attaching the label is equivalent to joining a "club", which would in turn imply that you are elitist or exclusionist.
3. You feel that your own beliefs hold a uniqueness which cannot be expressed by the labels.

Are there any other reasons?

• Note: I do not wish to start disputes over the definitions of labels and do not want any attacks on individual labels (such as telling someone that they are evil because they call themselves 'Liberal' or 'Pagan').

So the question is, what's wrong with using labels do describe yourself?

[The Persnickety Platypus]

By the way the reason my thing doesnt say Christian is because I'm new so I havent worked it out yet.

Click the "Usergroups" tab just under the forum header.

[Greatest I Am]

A label is like one color inside the demographic shape of an individual.
Most of us are made up of diferent colors. When we hear a lable we do not see the complete individual but only see what the label means to us as one color only and do not realy see the true individual.
Label yourself and you will see that even knowing yourself as well as you do, you cannot identify yourself wholy from the label you choose.

Regar

DL

[methylatedghosts]

I do not like labels as much as some people, because when you label a person, you begin excluding others. For example, if sdomeone was to label themselves as "Christian" because they have some christian based beliefs, then we are not going even consider that that person could also fit the label "Pagan". These labels on the surface seem to contradict each other, and so with only one of these labels, the other is excluded automatically, be the rest of us