The Power of Labels

The Power Effects of Labels

We use labels every day to refer to other people and to ourselves; this is how we communicate. Labels function as signifiers, which are “the culturally constructed arbitrary words or symbols we use to refer to something else” (Martin & Nakayama, 2009, p. 285). Some labels we accept and use ourselves, while others may make us feel trapped or misrepresented. For example, I may be labeled as a female, both by myself and by others, and I would accept this as one of my social identities. But if someone called me weak because of this, I would feel misrepresented.

People with power can potentially create a much greater impact, being able to label whole groups of people and to influence others with their discourse. The Westboro Baptist Church has raised a lot of publicity for its anti-gay and anti-Semitic discourse and nonverbal communication through picketing and protests. The members of the WBC have picketed at the funerals of dead homosexual soldiers who had died in the war, using the label of homosexual to gain power over families, which has added to their grief and pain. The WBC has gained much publicity, which can mean power, through the media and has even been sued, taken all the way up to the Supreme Court (Anti-Defamation League, 2009).

Upon reading this chapter, I learned about the real power of labels, which was something that I never really thought about. It has taught me that one of the important things that must be remembered in intercultural communication is to think about the affect that certain labels may have on the person with whom you are speaking. I will try to remember the dynamic nature of labels and that each individual’s identity is made up of hundreds of labels, which means that he or she should not be treated under the assumption of just one label.

References:

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama T. K. (2009). Intercultural communication in contexts (5^th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Anti-Defamation League. (n.d.). Westboro Baptist Church. Retrieved from: http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/WBC/default.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=WBC