Need a Label?

I was discussing last week with my daughter, the value or necessity of  attaching labels to people and it made me consider the ‘labels’ that I’ve either put on myself or have been given throughout my life. Apart from the descriptive tags of mother, sister, etc, these labels can cause a certain behaviour which is expected.

Shakespeare’s in his play ‘As you like it’ wrote-

‘All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players’

If I therefore have a label to conform to, am I in control or acting a role for the benefit of others?

 I don’t necessarily object to labels because they can give defined rules, responsibilities and expectations as my nursing career was governed by the rules of the NMC and my education role held specific responsibilities and expectations.

My point is, do labels help or hinder? Do we use them too liberally; are they restrictive, controlling, cause us to conform? Or does a label describe a stereotype that we can dismiss so easily?

When I first retired I realised that many of my life long labels no longer applied which was quite liberating but also made me think how I had probably  been defined by these labels and now that they did not apply, then ‘who am I now?’  This identity crisis only lasted a couple of hours because I’ve picked up more replacement labels!! I am now an artist, a dressmaker, and best of all- a retiree!

So now, if I therefore have a label to conform to, am I in control or acting a role for the benefit of others? I think that I now have the control because I can now decide whether to play on this world stage or just be a spectator – but that’s another label isn’t it?