Labels are for soup cans

[undeniablyme]

Hi, long time lurker on FWR.

So I was in soft play at the weekend and saw someone wearing a T-shirt saying "labels are for soup cans" which, to me thinking about how people are increasingly forced to declare their pronouns, seemed like it might belong to someone GC.

I didn't say anything as I wasn't sure and also didn't want to be the weirdo in soft play. But then when I've googled it to see where it fits in the big wide world of slogans it seems to come up in some gay pride shops. So now I am confused.

I have a real issue with being forced to put a name on everything. I grew up when in the 90s was labelled a "mosher" because of the clothes I wore and the music I listened to. I just thought I was me. Can anyone help me understand which side of the line this particular quote falls on because I'm just totally confused.

More likely to be the parent of a kid with SEN in that context, I'd have thought.

Agree - the context being “it is not a label, it is a diagnosis”

The TQIA+ crowd reject labels in the same kind of way that they reject conformity, reject fascism, reject the patriarchy and reject capitalism.

(i.e. they have practically made a religion out of those things, but they don't have the self-awareness to realise it.)

Aaaah. Ok. Yes that makes perfect sense now. And am I glad I kept my mouth shut! 😳

I've clearly been lurking here for too long and can't see the wood for the trees. Wow do I feel stupid.

Time to change username back and never use this one ever again! How embarrassing.

Don't feel stupid! I think it would actually be a great GC slogan.

No, I think there are interesting overlaps, parallels and points of discussion WRT "labels", identity, the genderist and related queer movements and the neurodiversity and other modern disability/chronic illness/"spoonies" movements, especially with online communities and self-identification. It all gets messy and complicated though…

I had a similar thing when I first saw ‘it’s sisterhood, not cis-terhood’ or something to that effect. I had a dim moment where I thought that it was feminists rejecting ‘cis’ labels. The second time I came across it I realised the opposite was true and it was self proclaimed ‘cis’ women centring men, of course.

Don’t feel bad about it. I think in your reading it makes perfect sense in reality.