Cross-posted with FetLife, (although this one's a bit more visually-friendly this time around, in my opinion...)
When we first learn a term for something that we didn't know had its own word or its own phrase, when we first find out something has a label at all, it's awesome, amazing, "Wait, there's enough people that share my experience that there's a word for this thing?!" As you read through the rest of this post, don't forget this, labels are powerful for those who need them.
When we're first getting to know each other, whether it be things that identify us, or turn ons, or limits, or just any general info about ourselves, labels are useful in directing conversation, in providing quick bullet points to touch on later. Any label is a branch of conversation waiting to be tapped.
Labels are a great communication tool... but they are the beginning of a conversation, nothing more! Many people make the mistake of assuming that they automatically understand someone because they know what they believe that label to mean. People function well in categorizing things into boxes, and labels are what get put on those boxes, but it also prevents people from seeing the individuals in those boxes as individuals sometimes.
