Another aspect of this, especially with regards to labels that describe people, is where problems arise because the label starts to drive the way a person is expected to act or think. "Oh, i'm gay/Buddhist/a man/butch/female/black, so i should X (or shouldn't Y)." That comes from a "hard" use of the labels as driving one's identity in ways that cause people a lot of stress. The label may have originated as a way of describing people in general, but when it becomes a part of people's identity or politics it causes these kinds of stresses that don't really seem to do anyone any good.