LABELS? Sexuality? Vegan? Cruelty Free?

I have been wanting to do this post for a while but I have been struggling to find the words, so I am really happy that I am ready to share this post. This post might turn out to be a bit of a mess but I just want to keep it super rare and honest.

A label, the new thing that the 21st century are obsessed with, whether it is a lifestyle like "Vegan" or "Cruelty Free" or whether it is something more personal like a relationship status or your sexuality "Single" or "Gay". Either way, I think, they are overused and I hate them, so let me get into why.

I hate labels because I just think you are giving a person one word to associate them with. For example, if someone comes out to you as gay, some narrow minded people are just going to refer to you as the "gay friend" or the person I know who is "gay". I think that this is just wrong, there is so much more to a person than their sexuality or that one label you have given them. I only named a few examples but it could be anything from "fat", "smart", "lonely", "virgin", if anyone ever referred to me as one of these, I would truly be offended. This is because I would like to think that there is so much more to me than my intelligence, or my physical appearance etc.

Another reason I hate labels is because they make everything official. I do apologize that if these next few things I say offended you in anyway but I just need to say it.

Why I don't label myself as cruelty free? I know this is a sore subject but I hope you can just hear me out. Cruelty free is usually associated with beauty products or at least that's what I know it as and I know all sorts of things are tested on animals but I am just going to talk about the beauty side of things as that is what my blog is mainly about. Now, only over the past 6-9 months or so have I been educated on animal testing and before then I was buying whatever I wanted not knowing the cost and those things, I still talk about today. I don't label myself as cruelty free because I know that on my blog I am going to talk about things tested on animals because they are still part of my collection or share a photo on instagram including a Mac Lipstick because I still wear it. I do this because I want to keep it real, I am not going to throw away or sell a makeup product tested on animals if I love it, but what I will do is try and find an alternative that is cruelty free. Nowadays I feel like the smallest of things make a huge difference but they are not appreciated, let me give you an example. My skincare routine use to consist of Liz Earle, Nivea, St.Ives and Clean&Clear, all of which test on animals and so gradually over the last few months I have been buying cruelty free alternatives but still to this day I don't have a fully cruelty free skincare routine because I am still yet to find alternative I love just as much. The thing I find sad about this though, is that if I was to share this on my social media, I wouldn't be appreciated for making small, slow changes, but I would be slated for not having a complete cruelty free skincare routine or whatever. Still to this day, I am making little changes but buying cruelty free makeup and slowly finding a whole new beauty routine that is cruelty free that I love just as much as my last routine. For example, for my birthday, I have asked for only cruelty free makeup now to me this is an improvement but to everyone else, I should have done that from the start. 

To conclude, I don't label myself as cruelty free because it is a gradual process for me and if I slip up, I will slated for lying or slipping up or not caring but the sad thing is, is that everyone makes mistake but those mistakes me make are the things that get remembered not the changes and improvements we have made.

Now onto, why I don't label myself as straight? Again, a little bit of a touchy subject but I did want to cover it in this post. If people ask me who I fancy or my sexuality then I do say boys or straight but that is because they are asking because they want a one word reply and so I generally use those words which I hate doing but just feel like I have to. Saying that, if I have a chat to someone about my sexuality, I always say that I am generally attracted to boys but there are some girls I would much rather date than some boys out there and so if the right girl came in at the right time then yes, I could turn bi, or gay or whatever terms you want to give me but I would just rather say that I am attracted to an ambitious, trust worthy and respectful partner, not a boy or a girl. On the whole, I am more attracted to boys but that doesn't make me 100% straight because, if I am being totally honest, I don't think !00% straight people exist.

For a general overview, why do we use labels? are they easier? are they simpler? do we base judgment off of them? do we label people ourselves or do they label themselves? do people care about labels? Personally, I am just me, I am not straight or cruelty free or smart or fat, I am just Grace. I do me and you do you, so why do we need labels? We like them because they group us into these categories but one day it could drive us all to insanity. 

You can agree to disagree with me on any of these topics but I just wanted to share that with you. I would love to hear any of your thoughts down in the comments, whether they agree or disagree with me. Feel free to message me on any of my social medias if you have any questions about anything I have talked about in this post.

I hope I have inspired some of you to reject labels and just let people be themselves without giving them a title to refer to them as.

Grace xx