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Queering Identities: LGBTQ+ Sexuality and Gender Identity, 2.10 (V) What if we told you that gender is made up

2.10 (V) What if we told you that gender is made up

Welcome back. Have you ever heard the phrase that something is socially constructed? Or that gender or race is socially constructed? Do you ever wonder exactly what this statements mean? Today we will define social construction and highlight various examples to prepare you for our discussions over the next three modules about how social construction applies to gender, sex, and sexuality among other categories. Social constructs in the simplest terms are ideas, objects, institutions, and systems that we as humans have created. Let's start with one example that we believe everyone will be familiar with, democracy. Democracy is a social construct. It is an idea about how to organize and manage a group of people which has given rise to various objects, institutions, and systems. For example, democracy is embodied in objects like the Statue of Liberty. It is manifested in institutions, most notably formal election processes. The social construction of democracy is exhibited in the multitude of systems of democratic governance around the world. These include, to give just two examples, Norway's parliamentary system and Costa Rica's presidential system. Any idea about how to coordinate and run a society whether it be democracy, monarchy, socialism or anarchism is a social construct. Another way to put this is that each of these ideas as social constructs are human inventions or creations. This brings us to one of the most common misunderstandings about the concept of social construction. However, just because something is a social construct does not mean it is not real. In other words, social constructs are very real. Often the idea that social constructs aren't real is grounded in assumptions about what it means for something to be real. But real can have different meanings in different contexts. For example, sometimes real can refer to what is natural or relatedly what is objectively verifiable. At other times, real can refer to that which has tangible approvable effects. Still another definition of real is that it refers to something which is genuine or authentic. All of these definitions of real are closely related, but when someone objects to the idea of something being a social construct they usually only have one or two of these definitions in mind. Let's look at the example of democracy again. Even though democracy is an idea that humans created or made up in order to structure and manage their societies, that doesn't mean democracy isn't real. The very real experience many of us have had of actually living in democratic societies, belonging to democratic organizations, and/or studying history of democratic institutions tells us that democracy is very real in many senses of the word. It would be hard to claim for example, that democracy is not real when it has so many tangible approvable effects. Democracy has been implemented in a variety of ways and to varying degrees. Yet it still has perceptible and verifiable effects on individuals specifically and societies generally. The most concrete examples of these effects are that living in a democratic nation encourages and sometimes requires citizens to vote among other civic activities. Democracy also determines which representatives get elected who then make an implement policies. These policies fundamentally affect and alter the physical, social, and political aspects of a given society. However, the definition of real as natural is the definition most frequently relied upon by those who object to labeling something as a social construction. Those who object often insist that the thing in question is natural or occurring in nature without human influence and therefore cannot be a human invention. This brings us to a second misunderstanding associated with the concept of social construction. The idea that social construction is an ideological or political attempt to deny naturally occurring phenomenon. However, this isn't the case, what the concept of social construction does do is help differentiate between naturally occurring phenomenon and human attempts to classify, categorize, or give meaning to that phenomenon. Some of the most difficult social constructs to recognize as social contracts are systems of classification used to explain and categorize naturally occurring phenomenon in the human experience. These systems of classification have become so dominant and familiar that we take them for granted. Not as socially constructed methods of categorization but as objective and accurate descriptions of the natural world. We will move forward with the focus on gender as a social construct, while we will return to the concept of sex as a social construct. As our discussions of gender, sex, and sexuality as social constructs become more in depth, it will be important to keep the definition of a social construct in mind. Until next time.


2.10 (V) What if we told you that gender is made up

Welcome back. Have you ever heard the phrase that something is socially constructed? Or that gender or race is socially constructed? Do you ever wonder exactly what this statements mean? Today we will define social construction and highlight various examples to prepare you for our discussions over the next three modules about how social construction applies to gender, sex, and sexuality among other categories. Social constructs in the simplest terms are ideas, objects, institutions, and systems that we as humans have created. Let's start with one example that we believe everyone will be familiar with, democracy. Democracy is a social construct. It is an idea about how to organize and manage a group of people which has given rise to various objects, institutions, and systems. For example, democracy is embodied in objects like the Statue of Liberty. It is manifested in institutions, most notably formal election processes. The social construction of democracy is exhibited in the multitude of systems of democratic governance around the world. These include, to give just two examples, Norway's parliamentary system and Costa Rica's presidential system. Any idea about how to coordinate and run a society whether it be democracy, monarchy, socialism or anarchism is a social construct. Another way to put this is that each of these ideas as social constructs are human inventions or creations. This brings us to one of the most common misunderstandings about the concept of social construction. However, just because something is a social construct does not mean it is not real. In other words, social constructs are very real. Often the idea that social constructs aren't real is grounded in assumptions about what it means for something to be real. But real can have different meanings in different contexts. For example, sometimes real can refer to what is natural or relatedly what is objectively verifiable. At other times, real can refer to that which has tangible approvable effects. Still another definition of real is that it refers to something which is genuine or authentic. All of these definitions of real are closely related, but when someone objects to the idea of something being a social construct they usually only have one or two of these definitions in mind. Let's look at the example of democracy again. Even though democracy is an idea that humans created or made up in order to structure and manage their societies, that doesn't mean democracy isn't real. The very real experience many of us have had of actually living in democratic societies, belonging to democratic organizations, and/or studying history of democratic institutions tells us that democracy is very real in many senses of the word. It would be hard to claim for example, that democracy is not real when it has so many tangible approvable effects. Democracy has been implemented in a variety of ways and to varying degrees. Yet it still has perceptible and verifiable effects on individuals specifically and societies generally. The most concrete examples of these effects are that living in a democratic nation encourages and sometimes requires citizens to vote among other civic activities. Democracy also determines which representatives get elected who then make an implement policies. These policies fundamentally affect and alter the physical, social, and political aspects of a given society. However, the definition of real as natural is the definition most frequently relied upon by those who object to labeling something as a social construction. Those who object often insist that the thing in question is natural or occurring in nature without human influence and therefore cannot be a human invention. This brings us to a second misunderstanding associated with the concept of social construction. The idea that social construction is an ideological or political attempt to deny naturally occurring phenomenon. However, this isn't the case, what the concept of social construction does do is help differentiate between naturally occurring phenomenon and human attempts to classify, categorize, or give meaning to that phenomenon. Some of the most difficult social constructs to recognize as social contracts are systems of classification used to explain and categorize naturally occurring phenomenon in the human experience. These systems of classification have become so dominant and familiar that we take them for granted. Not as socially constructed methods of categorization but as objective and accurate descriptions of the natural world. We will move forward with the focus on gender as a social construct, while we will return to the concept of sex as a social construct. As our discussions of gender, sex, and sexuality as social constructs become more in depth, it will be important to keep the definition of a social construct in mind. Until next time.