People label to try and understand why others are different from themselves. It's not a good thing, just an attempt at comprehension in a complex world.

Labeling is disgusting and cruel, I have very strong views on this because it can be harmful to you emotionally. People don't want to know you because of what they've heard about you (ignorance is one of the main causes of bullying) it gets hard to see who people are behind the stereotypes. We can't be perfect, no, but surely we can act our own age- I've lost two friends (who I'd always looked up to) because they could NOT tolerate other's beliefs. I'm thirteen and I can accept other people's differences, yet people still discriminate aginst me. Come on people, you can fight against war and things like that but you don't give a second thought about the careless things you say that can cripple people emotionally. Humans make you sick.

Sad but true, everyone labels. The reason why? Some people label because they are assertive, some people because they don't like a person or a way somebody dresses, some people label because they're hypocrites....because they don't want to get labeled, and still label people. Over all, everybody is a hypocrite. Perfection is something we humans are deprived of. The worst thing is that this labeling happens mostly during the high school years, oohhh, the hardest and most beautiful years of someone's life. the years during which we all leave the childhood dreams...going towards the adult responsibilities, and the labels can have serious psychological effects, they can affect someone's life in a bad way.

Exclusion is the basis for societal behavior. Totemism is necessary to the development of applied logic, and it is the first step in ones insistence on ones own development. Identity is the warcry of discovery, and the muezzin of community.

In my school, everybody is labeled, yes. It's wrong and pathetic at the same time. I figure, they're only calling themselves name and they should just be ignored. People like that are only looking for attention and it's stupid. They're not like 3 years old, they're teenagers and should know better. Personally, I think people should all be the same. Like in school, everybody should wear a uniform and then nobody can label somebody for their appearence because everybody looks the same. I have a philosophy of my own, but it's not up here. "You say you read me like an open book, but the pages are all torn and frayed. You'll never know the truth if you keep looking at the lies bounding the cover of this book." People are like book who have so many things hidden within. All this labeling are just lies that people throw on, like dust on a book. It's so heavy, that you can't get the book open to read the truth on the inside. Labeling, is pathetic and I see no point in it, but if somebody is trying to make themselves feel good.

Labels, especially the dichotimmous ones, simplifies our classification of all the complex things in our life.People are smart/dumb, pretty/ugly, rich/poor, in/out, etc. It is easier to remember these either/or labels than classifying people along a gradient.

Labels are actually an interesting phenomenon because they strongly resemble the widely studied idea of the "sign" in semiotic and lingustic theory. What signs mean and why we make them is a hot, never-ending debate in the humanities.

According to famous postmodernist thinker Jacques Derrida, the practice of labelling things and considering one label better than the other is not limited to the school yard. It's a tradition permeating all Western thinking back to the earliest texts of ancient philosophers like Plato. Derrida calls it "the metaphysics of presence", referring to how one label will be associated with "presence" or "truth" and the opposite label will be associated with "absence" or "falsehood".

To me this suggests that labelling doesn't occur on a high cognitive level like, say, communication. Labelling people stems from a general tendency to label our surroundings which relates to the very way we think in the first place.

From a psycological perspective, labelling would probably be considered a form of denial or repression. For instance, if you were a highly religious medieval minister, it is much easier to label that free-thinker in your town a witch and burn her than taking her arguments serious and inventing a whole new world view.

People who are grouped under labels are not always put their by their peers; a lot of the time they put themselves there. I'm sure you've heard of 'strength in numbers', by believing that you belong to a group(goth, emo, etc.) it makes you seem more valid. You can believe in what you do a lot more if there are others who do the exact same thing.

Just thought I'd point it out: I noticed that the name of the creator of this topic was 'Gothling Princess'. If you are so against labels, why do you include one of the very labels you seem so disgusted with in your name?

I have come from a high school that had at least 150 different labels/stereotypes...... I personally do not mind stereotypes.. They can think whatever they want about me, I dont give a shitt!! I love to argue with them because they say it is wrong, but they do it themselves... lol

if u iz a goth, prep ,gettho, gangster, roker, w/e u iz

it dosent mater it juz makz lyf easier 4 al of uz nd u kant be normal kuz dat dont exist!!