Microlabel

A microlabel is a specific self-description that describes a particular experience, identity, orientation or sense of gender in more detail. Microlabels often sit under a broader macrolabel or are used by comparatively few people. This may be because a term is new, comes from a particular community or names a very precise experience.

Examples of microlabels include libragender, demigirlflux, grayromantic, idemromantic and other more finely differentiated terms within non-binary, aromantic, asexual or queer spectrums. For some people, such labels are helpful because they provide language for something that broader terms such as queer, trans, non-binary, asexual or aromantic do not describe precisely enough. Others prefer broader terms or no labels at all.

Microlabels are not meant to make identities unnecessarily complicated; they can support self-understanding, exchange and community. At the same time, they do not have to be understood or used by everyone. A respectful approach is to take a person’s self-description seriously and not infer bodies, sexuality, relationship style, roles, preferences or boundaries from a microlabel. In dating, sexuality and BDSM, concrete communication and consent remain more important than any label.