Labels

[flexibeast]

i recently made a post to the Trans-Academics Google group which included a discussion about labels, the relevant excerpt of which i reproduce here:

i wanted to discuss the notion that "[u]ltimately it's only a label". i'm afraid i must disagree. Labels - in the form of nouns and pronouns, for example - seem to be an integral part of human communication; and we use those labels to convey certain properties of an object. Thus, although some people claim that we should dispense with labels altogether, i feel this is problematic for at least two reasons:

* The ability to reject labels such that other people do not label one requires a certain amount of privilege. Many - perhaps even most? - non-heteronormative people do not have the luxury of being in communities in which they can say "Don't label me" and people respond with "Oh, okay, you defy teh categorisations, no worries". Instead, non-conforming people tend to be given labels of deviancy, whether we like it or not.

* Even if its possible to move towards a society where such labels are no longer used, it's important to acknowledge that those labels have been, and continue to be used, as designators of those are discriminated against, harrassed and/or oppressed. To me, simply demanding that we move past labels, such that (for example) no distinction is made between cisgendered and transgendered people, is to suggest that we should just dismiss the fact that cisgendered people /have/ benefited, and continue to benefit, from cis privilege in a way that trans people haven't and don't. Thus, i feel that it's inappropriate to suggest that we move to a linguistic level playing field when the playing field of daily experience is definitely /not/ level for many people.

So my preferred strategy is to accept the existence of labels per se, and instead contest which labels heteronormative ideology deems to be 'appropriate' / 'sensible' and 'inappropriate' / 'nonsensical'. This is, in practice, what many people in the trans communities do: we are often told that we're not 'really' men or not 'really' women, and we typically dispute such claims stridently.

Comments

Re: My 0.54$

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

And a fine $0.54 it is too! Thanks. :-)