Social Construction Of Race And Gender

When we hear the word "race" we're more than likely inclined to automatically think of the color of someone's skin. Though this isn't entirely inappropriate, there is so much more to race than that. Sociologists say that race is a social construction created in society, meaning it's basically a set of "stories" we tell ourselves and hear overtime to make sense of the world. Since we hear these stories over and over again, we act on them, ultimately making them true. This can be said of many aspects of culture and society, however, it seems to happen with race without our realization.

Race is one of the important category which is constructed in society even though it is not scientifically valid category. The scientists divide the ethinic groups by the different category of their skin color, nose and shape of eyes, body types, hair color ect. Among the different human races, they could find the obvious observations which divides the physical differences. In the world of education, when (African, Asian, American, Indian, white people, Latinos) they have to understand the patterns of certain style or learning behaviors, they have all different styles of learnings. The evolution of forces work into three different ways. First is Gene flow which refers about the movement of genes between populations. Second is Genetic Drift

Race, gender and class defines our experience. Studies have shown that, even though, these three aspects define who we are, they are interwoven. Each of these three aspects affects our decisions which could be either positive or negative. Class, race and gender as an individual is determined by our parents and If any of these changes, it would automatically change every aspect of the individual.

Scholars and others argue that the term “race” should not be used because there is no biological basis for the concept of race. Geneticists have determined that code for physical traits (the key distinguishing characteristic for “race”) are inherited independently of one another. Any attempts there have been to define race based on genes are futile, because there is no set of genes that everyone within the “race” has. Scholars argue that race is a social construction. Divisions have been constructed by society. Society tries to put people into different groups, it makes it easier to define people as “other”

The concept of race is fundamentally a social construct. It is based on a notion of difference, of ‘otherness’, ‘blackness’, ‘whiteness’, identity, nationalism and multiculturalism. ‘Race’ matters, as despite being biologically disputed, its social impact is immense. Despite being an unreal social construct, it is real in its consequences. It affects life prospects and influences health, wealth, status and power. As such, a critical deconstruction of the pernicious, pervading and often all too determinative discourse of racial categorisation is crucial to social progress. We must dissect and discern what gives rise to these ideologies. How is race defined? What criteria, intellectual contexts, or psychological misconceptions lead to such discrimination? (109 words)

According to van den Berghe and Zuckerman (1967, 1990), race is the biological term used to distinguish populations in different areas using physical characteristics such as skin color and facial features (Measuring Racial Discrimination, 2004, p26). The genetic clusters are being found and they are used in constructing concepts of race (p26).Members of the society routinely use these characteristics to categories people and they lead people to have different social perceptions, attitudes and behaviors (p27).

The topic of gender has been of great debate for quite some time. Talks of social constructs used to segregate genders based on the concepts such as race, biology, and tradition and have people conform and believe in these ideas of gender. The very idea has shaped what society considers gender and gender roles, “the cultural expectations imposed on men and women to behave in ways deemed appropriate for their gender” (Ciccarelli, White). These beliefs control the perception of oneself and others and often these expectations are branded with stereotypes. Gender roles uphold sexist, misogynistic, and racist viewpoints that withhold individuality and so forth should be dismantled to have true gender equality and acceptance.

Race and gender are enormously important to an individual and to society. Individuales use both of these to create their identity. Society uses both to put people into categories and give them statuses. These statuses dictate people's roles. Both of these factors can impact a person from the day they are born. Although they are separate factors, they are often treated similarly in terms of discrimination. No matter what, people find ways to discriminate against categories of both of these factors. That discrimination can have huge effects on an individual and their life.

Radical changes in modern society have decreased the intense constraints gender stereotypes once had. Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of persons, in this case, gender roles fit under the stereotype branch as they are expectations based off of society’s views of either sex. Thus, forming social constructs; the generalization and expectations held by a group or person due to society. Gender is the traits one picks up based on what sex they are; for example, the social construct of masculinity and femininity are gender roles that are derived from the stereotypes passed down from society. In contrast, sex is the body parts one has that has the primary function of reproduction (Source A).

The word gender can be described as the state of being male or female and is typically used to describe cultural differences as opposed to biological ones. Additionally, the definition of gender has continuously been a controversial issue due to its lack of clarity in regards to battling complicated social injustices. Furthermore, the construction of gender as a social category has recently been criticized for the lack of inclusiveness to women of color and the consistent habit to view both gender and race as restrictive divisions of experience and reasoning. Seeing those criticisms has led to the development of the term intersectionality which deals with various layers of subjection that women live with and addresses more than just the

I remember being in high school and this boy told the P.E teacher that he thinks that all the boys in my P.E class are faster than the girls in the class. Some of the girls got upset and decided to ask the teacher if some of the boys and girls in the class, can do a race. Around the time that this happen, it was the first weeks of school. A race happened between three boys and three girls in my gym class and two of the girls that was part of the race won the race. The girls wanted to prove that gender has nothing to do with if a person could run or not. It’s been so many cases in the world, where a lot people these days get prejudge base on gender and race. I think prejudice it’s something that’s still going on every day in this world and

Many arguments have come up in the light of the interests of this paper. The interest of this paper is diverse, dynamic and concrete to consider. In the light of race, sex and gender, the beliefs of the society are diverse and varied from region to region. The observance of Warnke’s conclusion that race, sex and gender are social constructs across societies varies from one society to another, with some being for and others against the argument. All this depends on the perception held by these societies in regard to the three variables being treated in this paper. There are more likely scenarios that the paper has identified, like the possibility that gender is a social construct. However due to the arguments in Warnke’s book, conceptualizing this point to an evidence fails to materialize. Race and ethnicity takes the argument of the book but the other two variables fails to. This only concludes that only race or ethnicity is a social construction, but sex and gender totally fails to be an integration of social construction.

Human beings, as a whole, have generated more than enough speculation as to the origins of mortal nature. Why are we they way we are? Why do we do the things we do or feel the way we feel? Scientists and philosophers have almost always dedicated their causes to the study of biology or religion, continuously giving humanity’s gender, sexuality and identity a basis from a scientific or religious perspective. Science is supposed to be correct. After all, that IS the basis of science. Yet how many times has the world thought to be flat and proved wrong? And the sun, which was thought to be revolving around the earth, was proven incorrect? The theory of social construction seems to be a new introduction to the way we see the world. It is largely possible that a brainwashing through society and media plays a large part of the social disparity between men and women or straight and queer people. Perhaps the innate idea that declares from such a young age that we are to be brought up based on our gender truly has very little to do with science and is instead, based on us as a human race? Social construction theory plays on this idea, accusing society of indoctrination through media, literature, and a sense of ‘normalcy’

As human beings, we rely on categories of differences to make sense of the world around us. We utilize our shared cultural knowledge to categorize ourselves as the self and those around as other in order to coordinate our actions. One of the most common example of such categories of differences is gender. For that very reason, Cecelia L. Ridgewood (2009) defines gender as a primary cultural frame. It not only shapes our interactions and but also how we organize social institutions, “Thus, difference and inequality codetermine each other in our shared gender beliefs, and coordination on the basis of them produces social relations of inequality as well as difference” (Ridgeway 2009:149). These shared gender beliefs are socially constructed

Of course, this is not the politically correct position in this country where much popular opinion has given rise to gender neutrality among other asinine ideas. There is a dichotomy between biological and cultural perspectives of how human variation is viewed, especially apparent in both race vs physical appearance and gender vs sex, which are often highly debated and publicized topics in today’s world. In the following paragraphs I will highlight a few of those disagreements.