I tend to think that labeling yourself can be very handy sometimes, but at other times it becomes a straitjacket. Often, as we grow and change, we have to re-assess some of the one-word blips we pick for ourselves.
I think that this is something of a mind-constrained-by-[language][culture] problem. If someone is labeled (by self or other) as "Bob is X" or "I am Y", "am" is... temporally uncertain. I am hungry. Easily fixed. Temporary situation (probably). Other labels become more complicated. I am blond. Some people would take this to be permanent, some people realize that it's actually among the easily changed, but likely requiring more effort. It gets even more sticky with lifestyle-orientation labels which require defense of the idea among onslaught of disapproval. One becomes identified with being the label, or rejects the labels trying to live outside them, losing track that labels act as map-descriptors, not whole-identity-packets.
So it gets very easy for people to get caught up in the temporally prolonged/infinite-expected-duration "am", and then forget that they can reassess their labels (which really, are in a constant state of revision, as "am" is also instant-determined).
Then there's the problem of no one actually speaking the same language. Words have meaning based on shared understanding, but frequently such context doesn't line up, especially in subcultures where multiple people are trying to claim a label to fit their interpretation of such thing, rather than add further descriptors to clarify.
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Date: 2010-03-07 02:31 am (UTC)I think that this is something of a mind-constrained-by-[language][culture] problem. If someone is labeled (by self or other) as "Bob is X" or "I am Y", "am" is... temporally uncertain. I am hungry. Easily fixed. Temporary situation (probably). Other labels become more complicated. I am blond. Some people would take this to be permanent, some people realize that it's actually among the easily changed, but likely requiring more effort. It gets even more sticky with lifestyle-orientation labels which require defense of the idea among onslaught of disapproval. One becomes identified with being the label, or rejects the labels trying to live outside them, losing track that labels act as map-descriptors, not whole-identity-packets.
So it gets very easy for people to get caught up in the temporally prolonged/infinite-expected-duration "am", and then forget that they can reassess their labels (which really, are in a constant state of revision, as "am" is also instant-determined).
Then there's the problem of no one actually speaking the same language. Words have meaning based on shared understanding, but frequently such context doesn't line up, especially in subcultures where multiple people are trying to claim a label to fit their interpretation of such thing, rather than add further descriptors to clarify.