Queer originally meant someone or something a bit strange and different from the mainstream and was used as a put-down for gays. In the 1980’s queer moved from being a term of abuse to being a statement of  rebellion against heterosexual norms. So what’s in a label?

My first full-time permanent job was in 1972 in Polymark, a company in Shepherd’s Bush. London, producing print-on labels  which revolutionised sew-on labels. Since then, I have I lived through decades of labels, masks and badges. Now I put my tongue in my cheek when I label myself as an old-cis-woman-socialist-feminist-bisexual-Irish-European with a dash of British  Individual labels added together are still not enough to give me a sense of self. I had many identities and wore many masks in my transition from convent schoolgirl in an Ulster border town to a pensioner on the other side of the Ulster border many decades later . When I looked up the company Polymark to see if it still existed I was struck by the way they have diversified around the heat transfer system and now also do barcodes. As our identities move towards QR codification, I ask myself again about labels and what they do my sense of self.

When I read other Ulster writes who have been around for a while, like the writer-presenter John Kelly, I realise the historical period, class and place we grow up in are more  important than the masks we wear. In forging a sense of self  my emotions and  values  are at the heart of my identity. What have labels to say about my two motivating forces –  writing and climate action? How can labels help me explore  my main themes which are exploring gender, and human rights? Cultural exploration is tainted by the invention of  race. No labels describe how power over the “other” has been at the heart of the accumulation of wealth which has progressed steadily in my seventy plus years..

The pink dollar reminds me that art, culture, creativity, and family life have been subverted by  consumerism which feeds the extremes of wealth accumulation, and which in turn has brought human nature to a crisis point. We have “gone too far” but the problem is not the “alphabet soup” of identity. While we squabble about gender labels, stereotypes or toilet facilities,  right wing factions distract us from the main battle which is to reclaim our human nature with all its galactic connections, complexity and fluidity. I will explore my sense of self in a nature network.