Why do we tag people? Why do we help people recognize them by how they look, how they walk and in general, of their physical appearances? How do we know people's worth just by seeing them? Have we been granted sights?
I remember going to a ceremony where I overheard my uncle telling one of his friends about a man who might have the latter's colleague. The latter, no matter of my uncle's vivid description couldn't recall about who he was talking about. The thing that irked me was the statement, "The man behaves like a woman in the way he talks," and his friend immediately recognized.
People around the table laughed. I wanted to walk to them and ask if that was a good description. Why do we tag people of who they are, just physically?
She is a black woman. He is just another gay man. The white male trash walks the corridor. That dwarf. That stupid fat girl.
The tags we associate people to binds them to stereotype, and that haunts them forever. We have no idea the struggle and efforts behind their appearance. What they wear, how they talk and how they appear has an untold story behind it. So, when do we learn to be considerate?
The tags that we associate people to, makes them less confident. Will they like who I am? ... this haircut looks nice. Nah! I have never been that way... fat people don't wear dress... My thighs will look bad...
The head is never free, always full of thoughts: thoughts that are actually the echo of the voices of the nasty tags that we bind to them. But what do the people tagged do?
So, how do we remove those tags? Should we run away? Should we cut off from the society? How do we look beyond the jails they have captured us in? How do we break the chains? And believe me, I am using these kinds of comparison only because I have, in handy, experienced the pain of those words and tags.
The easiest way is to recognize our worth. Every human being is worth something. Moreover, we can always choose to shut those voices, and actually, why do those voices even matter? For people with thin skin, it's very much advisable that we take help and advice from people who know things better.
But the voices will always be there, to bind you in #Tag. So, in this all, I couldn't help but wonder: how do we actually un-tag ourselves?
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Stories from A Troubled Boy
غير روائي..and I was different. "He is weird," said my seniors, tone redolent with mockery. And nicknames began. I have now lost count of the names. There are many, and it reached my home. My single mother was worried about who I was going to be. Though...
