Member-only story

Not Everything in Life Needs a Label

The downside to having to identify everything.

Vanessa Torre
5 min readJul 12, 2019
Photo by Nadine Shaabana via Unsplash

I understand some people are immensely attached to them. I find labels horribly confining. I don’t like life inside a box.

I get it. Some people have greatly benefited from being able to apply a label, find others with that label and gain some seriously amazing personal growth. I’m for that. I celebrate that. For them. For me, it makes my teeth itch.

Labels don’t make me feel more understood. They do the opposite. They load me with expectations based on whatever someone’s understanding is of that label.

This is the last thing I need in my life. Once hit with a label, I feel like that part of my life must stay that way. Any deviation is a betrayal.

Everyone has preconceived notions. If you slap a label on part of my life, once someone hears that label, they will have an idea about me that either will be confirmed or blown away. It goes for just about any part of my life.

My beliefs

I have all but stopped telling people I’m a feminist.

People have their understanding of what that “feminist” means and more times than not…

--

--

Vanessa Torre
Vanessa Torre

Written by Vanessa Torre

Top 10 feminist writer. Writing, coaching, and relentlessly hyping women in midilfe. linktr.ee/Vanessaltorre Email: vanessa@vanessatorre.com

Responses (6)