Labels

People tend to label each other. And when they put the labels on, it's more often have negative connotation.

The first word that comes to my dacron-filled head is the word FAT. there are many synonyms for the word FAT like beefy, big, bovine, bulky, distended, dumpy, elephantine, heavy, inflated, jelly-belly, lard, large, obese, oversize, plump, porcine, portly, potbellied, swollen, whalelike and the list goes on. 
The same thing in Indonesian language which is GEMUK and the synonyms are gendut, gempal, gembrot, tambun, etc.  Not only these words are used to describe the state  of their physical size but if you think carefully, I believe there's another intention which is to add INSULT. Some of the synonyms even suggest that overweight people are comparable to animals when it comes to weight and/or size.

Source

 Let's look at the case of Afriyani who killed 9 people in a car accidents. If you read the news (I'm so sorry for not giving any link coz I'm too lazy, I believe you can google yourself) many reporters added the unnecessary body size description. According to my observation, the prevalence of describing body size (especially for the plus-sized subjects) shoots up concurrently when the subjects did criminal act. Many comments in the forum or facebook called Afriyani PEMBUNUH GENDUT (translation: fat murderer). The word Gendut or fat to me is to add up insult to her. I seldomly hear people shout "YOU THIN MURDERER". Do you get my point? 

in this case even the body size is linked to other negative characteristics that may or may not be true

Implication: the existence of fattist (def: discrimination on the basis of weight, esp prejudice against those considered to be overweight). Developed countries are trying to prevent fattism and incorporating these sensitive issues in their education. While developing countries, well... are still struggling with providing education, let alone spreading the correct contents.

The second word is that comes to my mind is the sexual orientation i.e homosexual, especially gay. I always wonder, in Indonesia why criminals (murderer particularly) who happens to be homosexual tends to get excessive media coverage e.g Ryan Jombang and Mujianto from Nganjuk. Why does sexual orientation create such a fuss. How come when there is Heterosexual killer or rapist don't get the same amount of media coverage? And there's no headline like HETEROSEXUAL KILLER CONFESSED KILLING 20 WOMEN. or HETEROSEXUAL KILLER IS STILL AT LARGE. 
In Indonesian the synonyms for gay are homoseksual, penyuka sesama jenis, etc. I find it weird with the usage of the term penyuka sesama jenis. The word jenis (translation: type, kind) is loosely applied here. What are you intending to say? I can say that a man likes a woman, they are penyuka sesama jenis (they are in love with the same species).

Even interspecies relationship is a celebrated thing

By labelling other people, we are allowing discrimination to happen which is incorrect on every level. I'll discuss discrimination in other post. 


XOXO


Teddy Bear