Labels Rant
I posted this in the lesbian community, but I liked some of my points and wanted to be able to go back and look at the entry from my own journal.
I’ve been a member of this community for a couple of months now. It seems like a lot of people make posts questioning their sexuality, or wanting to know what to label themselves, or wondering about the definition of a specific label. Example: “I’m not sure if I’m a lesbian because I’m attracted to this one guy, but I’ve never been attracted to guys before and I love women.” This bothers me. I don’t understand why people are so preoccupied with labels. Scratch that, I understand it I just don’t like it. Society is more comfortable when they can separate people into categories. Makes discriminating and “isms” so much easier that way. So, getting to my point: This is my theory about why we don’t need labels. First I need to explain the Spectrum of Homosexuality. I like to think of it in terms of percentages. Example: You are straight if you are 0% Homosexual. You are gay/lesbian if you are 100% Homosexual. (This gets kinda complicated, are you taking notes?) Right now I’m just talking black and white, one end of the spectrum and the other. Now, I would guess that only about 1% of the Earth’s population is 100% gay/lesbian or 100% straight. Okay, but what if you’re not only attracted to one gender all the time? This is where we enter the gray area, where the labels “gay” and “straight” become useless. I like to call this the Bisexual Zone. I know, I know, that’s a scary word, but in this case it’s the best one to describe the in between area. Me, I’m pretty much at the 50% line. I love both men and women, and could see myself being equally happy living the rest of my life with a man or a woman. Yes, I’m a freak, and I know that people like me are few and far between. Most people are somewhere in the middle, and I’m sure that everyone’s percentage changes depending on a number of factors (age, location, number of hot chicks/dudes in the proximity). So why do we struggle so hard to label ourselves so incorrectly? Why can’t we just be who we are without labels, especially since only about 1% of the population actually fits into the categories we try so desperately to cram ourselves into?
So, the moral of my rant is: (drum roll please) Be Yourself! Don’t get stuck trying to label who you are. Just be you, be attracted to who you’re attracted to, love who you fall in love with, whatever their gender. You are not one-dimensional. One label can’t possibly describe who you are, so stop trying to define yourself with other people’s definitions and make your own!
Ok, I’m getting off my soapbox now. Thanks for letting me rant :o)