THE LGBTQ+ WORLD
LABELlING: WHY DO WE DO IT?
By Perdita Blinkhorn
18th September 2014 Labelling is the activity of describing the characteristics of people, activities and objects. It can be useful for helping us understand the world around us but labelling, especially when applied to people, can by definition be very limiting. Moreover, it can lead to negative activities such as stereotyping, externally classifying and de-humanisation. So here's the question: why do we still do it? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that every single person is different; it is impossible for two people to have exactly the same biology, personality and/or psychology. Labelling, however, implies that humans can be neatly slotted into categories, thus ignoring the importance of originality and individualism. For the members of the LGBTQ+ community, this is a particular problem faced often on a daily basis. A gay man might know the frustration of being told by a friend when he comes out that he simply MUST be straight, because he dated that girl for 2 weeks a few years back. A bisexual might feel their sexual identity being erased by their parents as they are told they must either be straight or gay, as you can't have an in between. And I shudder in pain for the transsexual people who have been told by society they just CANNOT be a different gender than what they were born into. This obsession of labelling comes from people's desire to comprehend; we are so focused on fitting people into our subjectively defined categories that we never stop to ask whether it is our practice of categorising itself that needs to be changed. This community is plagued with the allocations of "butch", "manly", "femme", "sissy" and so on, used even by LGBTQ people themselves. In the eyes of society, if you are beyond the comprehension of labelling, an outlier, then you must either be forced to conform to social norms or rejected in your entirety. Labelling is an issue that effects race, gender, sexuality, class, social activity and every other kind of premise you can conceive of, frequently leading to discrimination and offensive stereotyping. Before I move on to the facts, let me give you a brief example of how labelling can cause big problems for people even in the 21st Century. Some people, such as Sam Sotiropoulos, who sits on a Canadian School District Board, believe that transgenderism is "simply a mental illness." This is a case of someone applying their own field of reason and labels to another human being. Labelling gave this man and others the power to define, de-humanise and even push into non-existence transgender people. Moreover, it takes away a person's own |
power to label themselves in any way they feel fit, and in this case casing huge offence both to the trans community and those suffering with mental illnesses.
In an unrelated, very famous sociological study, researchers Rosenthal and Jacobson told teachers in a US school that 20% of their students were "Bloomers" i.e. that in the long term they would be academically superior to their fellow students. The catch was that these so-called Bloomers were chosen completely at random, so if the Bloomers did do better than the other students by the next year it could only be a result of the teachers' labelling. And guess what? That's right, the Bloomers did in fact do better as the teachers, thinking they knew who would do best, had created a self-fulfilling prophesy. It can be quite easy to see the negative impact of labelling in this particular case study, and I think I've made my point. Adam Atler, a contributor to Psychology Today, explains that "Categorical labelling is a tool that humans use to resolve the impossible complexity of the environments we grapple to perceive. " He goes on to make the point that while some labels are useful and necessary in everyday life (for example, the media labelling an escaped murder as "dangerous") most merely create self-fulfilling prophesies. In other words, we make ourselves believe that people are living up to the labels we give them, not only seemingly justifying our use of labels but also making unfair judgements about people. What I urge readers to take away from this, is that the only labels that can rightfully stick to you are the ones you give yourself. You may give yourself factual labels such as "asexual" because that accurately describes your lack of desire for sexual activity. Equally, you may choose not to label yourself at all, which is also ok. Never let your wonderful self be limited by other people's judgments. It is possible for you to label yourself positively and use this to boost yourself esteem. If you tell yourself that you are beautiful, you will look more beautiful. If you say that you're intelligent you will see yourself as more intelligent, and possibly achieve more academically. If you know that above all else, you are a person who is happy and comfortable with who you are you will be; because there will never be a label that can describe the whole of the one, the only, the unique you. RESOURCES: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/09/07/watch-homophobe-lost-for-words-when-interviewer-brings-up-anti-gay-tweets/ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/alternative-truths/201005/why-its-dangerous-label-people |
GAY RUSSIAN BOYS LURED AND TORTURED BY NEO-NAZIS
By Perdita Blinkhorn
13th August 2013 Last week I was sent a video by my friend that was shot in Russia, and featured a young boy of 15 called Denis. The boy was simply walking along in the snow, when members from a Neo-Nazis group, ‘Occupy Pedofilyaj', pulled him over to one side to film his imminent humiliation. All that unfurled happened in broad daylight, in public areas. This group of men and women had made a gay sex advert on VK.com, the Russian equivalent to Facebook. The boy on the video had replied to it and was going to meet up with "Uncle Dima" for sex, supposedly in return for money. The group of at least 4, armed with a camera, accosted this boy and sat him down on a bench. One woman questions Denis as to why he came to meet "Uncle Dima", asking him if he knew that what he was doing was disgusting? The other anti-gay bullies of the group jeered and laughed at the boy, as he is forced to tell them about his sexual preferences. He is even pressured into telling them his full name, where he lives and where he goes to school, which alarmed me greatly. At one point in the film, Denis stands as if to leave and is told by one man that if he tried to run, the would beat him up. They ask Denis what his parents would do if they knew he was gay, and to this Denis replies that they would probably beat him up. He nearly comes to tears as they tell him that this video outting him will be all over the internet and then his parents will know. He begs them not to but he gets only cold laughs as a reply. One of the sinister balaclavaed men proceeded to tell Denis of his life story; of how he was an orphan and a criminal and yet he was still "not such a low life like you. You are a gay low life... I am fanatic. My parents died. Still I'm better than you." This video had quickly become very difficult to watch and I'm sure many of you would share the rage I felt. This was not helped when a female member of the public actually walked over to the group to see what was going on. When the thugs told her that he was he was here to give an old man sex for money, she said "You sell your ass to an old man for money?.. You're a real retard aren't you." The laughing gang member told her "He wanted to harm the man so everyone thinks he's a pedophile." The passerby, who one may have first hoped would be the boy's savior, then encouraged them to "finish him guys. With sticks. We will beat him with sticks". This vile video ends in an equally repulsive way, as one of the thugs declares that it is time for "the golden showers". Denis desperately pleads them not to proceed, |
but the group tips a bottle of urine over his head anyway, claiming "we will cure you of your homosexuality. This is our holy water." They then kick him and leave.
This is only one of several videos showing the homophobic maltreatment (to put it lightly) of young gay men in Russia, some with even worse scenes. As a result, some young men are committing suicide and those not are left deeply traumatized. This video not only out raged me when I first saw it, but made me question the progress of the gay rights movement in some countries. Under President Putin's regime the movement is starting to head in reverse; gay rights are being eroded and homophobic abuse is often ignored by the authorities. In July, Putin signed an anti-gay "propaganda" bill which made it illegal to tell young children that gay relationships were "socially equivalent" to straight relationships. But this war against "the fags" has not only just begun. In March of last year 17 gay rights activists were arrested in St Petersburg for displaying rainbow suspenders and flag under another anti-homosexual-propaganda law. The head of Coming Out, an LGBTQ organization, Polina Savchenko claimed that the aim of the law “is to stop any public LGBT rights activity,”. So why is no one doing anything about this? Well it's good to know that some people are actually taking a stand against Russia's discriminatory regime and are boycotting their vodka. While this is a start, one must wonder just how much impact on Russia this will make and how much abuse will continue to go un-reported and ignored. Russia has sworn a rule of zero tolerance to any form of political demonstration which includes LGBTQ rights, and yet also claim that no gay athlete will be discriminated against at their 2014 winter Olympics. The Russian interior ministry have declared that concerns over LGBTQ athletes welfare is "completely unfounded", so for now we can only hope that Russia will listen to the world and take a hint. However, for now it seems that Russian laws only recently having been created are more or less encouraging the making of videos such as the one I saw last week. This anti-gay feeling in Russia can be seen through statistics, as a few years ago approximately 52% of Russians were in favour of gay rights and this hass now fallen to around 39%. We are seeing a march of progress in the UK and in other countries such as America over gay rights, but until this success is global, the fight is not over. RESOURCES: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2379967/Russian-neo-Nazis-torture-gay-teenager-tricked-meeting-online-scam.html http://americablog.com/2012/05/gays-arrested-in-russia-for-wearing-rainbow-suspenders.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgx6CWXbcTM http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23674661 |