I got into a discussion about subjectivity with some other students in a chat room this afternoon. In an attempt to explain/explore the concept, I said, "Society might assign me the labels of woman, deaf, student, and straight." Someone else responded, "But aren't these more neutral labels?"

And I thought, "Well, maybe they are." But the more I think about it, the more I think every one of those labels is non-neutral, especially the last three. "Deaf" immediately labels me as disabled, and I rarely feel disabled. Occasionally it comes into play (I definitely say "huh?" a lot), but I've been brought up to reject the imposed subjectivity of "disabled person." I embrace the label of "student," but most of the world wants to know why I'm still in school at my age. And "straight" is a problem because that label doesn't exactly fit, either. "Woman" is even problematic from an extremely postmodern perspective, and I would definitely argue that it's a politically loaded term.

Come to think of it, they all are. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a neutral label.