Stereotype Lecture

We, as people, like to give things names. We give each other names. Products have names. Shows have names. Movies? Names. Songs? Names. Types of literature/movies/interest-based media are called "genres". All the different genres have names, like "Spaghetti Western" or "Romantic Comedy". There's even the dreaded, questionable "dramedy".

We name things because without a name, what the fuck are you going to call it? Granted, it's possible that we could go out of our way to describe a romantic comedy as "a funny, lighthearted film that focuses on trial-and-error romantic interactions and showcases the tried and true die-hard habits of the genre, making it a solid, riskless choice for seeing on a first date", but why would you when you can just say "romantic comedy"?

This convenience and the need to simplify language is the root of labels. It just makes sense. It is easier and more efficient to say "that goth kid" than "that kid who wears white pancake makeup, black lipstick, and thinks dressing like The Crow makes him the most awesome human being alive, did I mention that he's got a moral superiority complex?".

Simply put, if you have got a problem with having a label attributed to you, 98% of the time, you need to stop displaying the traits associated with that label so prominently. Your peers do not have a responsibility to get familiar with every nuance of your personality and inner spiritual bull before they judge you. If it is made of paper, has newsprint, and is folded in a brimmed triangle on someone's head, it's probably a newspaper hat, yes? That is what your peers are thinking when they make a quick "judgement pass". Humans are prone to categorizing things, because it makes communication and thought much simpler.

If there is a problem, it's not with labels existing, it's with the inaccuracy or inconsistency of "youth culture" labels, like "emo" or "goth". I can see being upset with being called emo if you are very obviously not emo, for instance, to somebody familiar with the subculture. I personally get frustrated when I see people call kids who are essentially goth-lite "emo", and call emo/fashionxcore kids "scene" without being at all aware of whether they support local musicians and go to local shows or not, which is what constitutes membership in what we commonly refer to as "the scene". And the inaccuracy in what most people think goth is, or the categories of goth. Wearing the "Hot Topic" styles of clothing do not make you goth, they make you industrial, or industrial goth. And neither does it have anything to do with religion. Real, traditional goths don't always dress particularly, anyway, they just have a sense for the beauty in dark things. I wish there was a way to get a whole bunch of people intimately familiar with each subculture together and publicly define the meaning of each term so people would not be categorized incorrectly all the damn time.

It's mature to accept that you've been labeled. In most cases, if you were not seeking something that was easily defined, you would not have adopted the traits associated with that easily definable thing.