By Miranda Wu

The words we choose to label ourselves with can hold a lot of significance and impact both our self-perception and how others perceive us. While it may not be necessary to assign ourselves labels or disclose what identity labels we use, the categorization and classification of identities are prevalent in many current cultures.

Whether it be filling out personal demographic surveys or in casual conversation with others, we may encounter many situations where we must confront our self-identities and reflect on how we choose to label ourselves. As I have entered the life stage of university and job applications, I have been presented with various questionnaires asking about my gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level and marital status, among other self-identifying labels. As we grow and learn more about ourselves, we are presented with various labels to describe different sociocultural groups we may identify with.

While some labels may feel ascribed to us, others lend more flexibility in choice. For example, the LGBTQ+ community uses many different labels and terms, most of which are evolving and changing, and definitions may differ depending on the person using that label. Historically, the labels “gay” and “lesbian” were most commonly used, but queer vocabulary has since expanded, with the plus in the acronym LGBTQ+ denoting more and more labels being added.

Alphabet mafia, a slang term that has arisen in recent years to describe the LGBTQ+ community, implies just that: a growing list of letters and labels that can be used to describe one’s gender, romantic and sexual orientation. Terms such as queer, pansexual and asexual have become more popular and commonly used, and that just represents the surface of a growing glossary of terms that are being created to describe people’s identities. However, the resurgence of certain labels and obsolescence of older ones does not negate our human experience.

For example, the pansexual label has become more popular in recent years and has been used to describe those who experience attraction to others regardless of gender. However, people with this experience of attraction have existed before the pansexual label was in common use and will continue to exist if this label stops being used. Whether this type of attraction is given a specific label or not, humans will continue to experience diverse forms of attraction. Another way to consider the use of labels is to examine how we label colours.

Colour is a visual perception of the electromagnetic spectrum. Depending on the wavelength of light, we perceive different colours, with 620 to 750 nanometers (nm) being what we call “red”, and 450 to 495 nm representing what we call “blue”. While this gradation of colour remains constant, with the visible spectrum existing between 390 to 710 nm wavelength, we create our own distinct categories to differentiate between the perceived colours. However, the way humans have labeled and categorized these colours differs between cultures.

Growing up in Canada, we were taught “ROYGBIV”. This mnemonic device is used to remember the colours that make up a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. However, colours are categorized differently in different parts of the world. In Bassa, a language used in Liberia, there are only two words used to classify colours; hui and ziza. Hui refers to colours on the cooler end of the spectrum, such as green, blue and violet, whereas ziza refers to colours on the warmer end of the spectrum such as red, orange and yellow. Thus, if presented with an apple and a lemon, an English speaker might classify these as red and yellow, whereas a Bassa speaker may classify them both as ziza.

Another example can be seen with Greek. Greek speakers have two fundamental colour labels to describe light and dark blue; ghalazio and ble, whereas English speakers use the same fundamental colour term of blue to describe both hues. If presented with two different pairs of blue jeans, an English speaker may say they’re both blue, but a Greek speaker may argue that they are fundamentally different colours, in the way an English speaker may view blue and purple as different colours. However, our environment also impacts how we perceive colours. Research has shown that Greek speakers begin to lose their ability to distinguish between ghalazio and ble depending on their environment. After spending a prolonged time in an English-speaking country, they begin to interpret ghalazio and ble in the same colour category: blue.

When reflecting on the colours that I’ve grown up with, ROYGBIV, I wondered how these distinctions were categorized in the first place. After a little research, I discovered that Sir Isaac Newton originally proposed a colour circle with five colours, but later added orange and indigo to get a total of seven colours to match the number of musical notes in the major scale. While the visible spectrum of colours remains constant, the way we divide and label categories differs greatly across history and location. The subjective way we’ve labeled different wavelengths of light doesn’t change that wavelength. 450 nanometers is 450 nanometers, whether you call it blue or hui or ghalazio.

Returning back to sociocultural labels, this comparison with colours may help to alleviate the pressure or stress of choosing a label. The human experience remains as it is, regardless of what you choose to label it. In the same way that a specific wavelength of light exists regardless of different cultural labels of colour, human experiences exist as they do regardless of the cultural labels we’ve created to describe ourselves. Others may see your experiences and choose to label you based on their perceptions, and you may choose to label yourself differently based on your own. Labels can help give us words to describe ourselves or provide a different perspective on how we see ourselves, but they can also come with stereotypes and stigma and lead to the oversimplification of complex human experiences.

When life gives you lemons, you might label those lemons as yellow, and someone else may call those lemons ziza, or jaune, or 黄色, but you still have lemons regardless of what you classify them as. You are allowed to exist as you are, no matter how you choose to classify yourself, or how others may classify you. Labels are personal to the individual choosing them, and have significance based on one’s own culture and experiences. Ultimately, the choice of a label should be personal to you, whether you choose to label yourself or not. ♦

To Label, or Not to Label: A Colourful Spectrum of Choice

By Miranda Wu