Examples Of Social Construction

Social construction has been around since the beginning of time. It is the idea that a persons understanding of how society works is socially constructed. For example, the notion that women should wear makeup or that men should be interested in sex are both social constructs. Social construction is integral in society as it influences how people judge others and view the world. Social construction heavily affects gender and sex. These affects can be negative as they create prejudices and assumptions about different genders and sexualities. One can see this through how women receive more judgment than men or how men are expected to be dominant in society. Social construction perpetuates negative assumptions and judgments towards sex and gender issues.

Gender roles is a problem that takes place in both the workplace, domestic conditions, and society. Often signified through the age-old stereotype. That men are required of the more "challenging" or more "advanced" jobs, while women restrict themselves to the less grueling and less beneficial positions. Terms such as "that 's a man 's job" is a leading cause of inequality in the workplace. Not to mention, gender roles and standards are set in the homes of many families everywhere. The so-called "picture perfect family" situation; the husband goes to work while the wife stays home to tend to the children. While romanticized as ideal, this concept is the very essence of a patriarchal society. Meanwhile, the brutally vicious society we live in often berates women 's self-esteems in more way than one. Stereotypes of beauty, or who are skinny, pretty, white, and wealthy, are unfortunately the ideal standard of women and

Gender roles affect the way we view males and females in society. According to Public and Private Families an Introduction by Andrew J Cherlin, “sex” is described as the biological characteristics the distinguish the difference between man and woman such as their reproductive organs and hormones. “Gender” is described as the social and cultural characteristics that describe the difference between men and women. Gender roles in the United States have changed more for women than for men due to the asymmetry of gender change which is the bigger change in woman’s lives than males.

We live in a world consisting of billions of people with different ideology, culture, language, and social class. Each one of us as an individual may have different goals in life, different behavior, or different language. However, we are all connected; this connection can be viewed in different levels. For example, a person may feel connected to his friend because they are classmates. In a broader level, they are connected because they both attend the same school. In the society, we can affiliate ourselves to certain groups, views, or historical events. “Sociological Imagination” is the ability that allows us to connect our personal experience to the “historical forces” (Conley, pg. 4).

The behaviors and societal norms we associate with male and female are socially constructed. As Dr. Thompson states in the film “boys and girls are far more human and far more the same than they are different.” However,

Societal gender binary requires individuals to identify by either masculine or feminine traits (Kachel, Steffens & Niedlich, 2016). Once gender socialisation has occurred, assumptions and stereotypes follow (Holmes, Hughes & Julian, 2012, p.109). If one refutes their gender norm, sexism and discrimination typically manifests. Similarly, stereotypes affect the way people treat others. Using stereotypes to define a person is prejudice and often leads to incorrect assumptions based on the way they act, look or conduct themselves in society. Social reproduction can impact one’s life experiences through limitation and inhabitation of involvement. Allowing for the transmission of inequity from one generation to the next, social reproduction restricts personal beliefs and

Gender has been a big issue in society. Sex is biological, and it is through sex that gender is produced (which according to West and Zimmerman, “gender, we said, was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social mean” (West and Zimmerman 1987, 125) - in other words, it is the categorization of both sex to act in a certain and acceptable way by the society, also known as norms) and can be recreated through human interaction and social life. All of this is being constructed by our environment; Inequality is being formed through identity. Everything all begins from when we are born. In society, it is believed that boys are tough while the women are believed to be soft and nurturing. There

The various cultures around the world all have this thing distinctively in common, and that is they all share their own expectations, especially when it comes to gender. It is well evident that there are set conformity standards with every culture, just as there are set standards with genders. There is no general way to characterize a man’s masculinity and a woman’s femininity just because a culture may influence certain expectations. With these cultural pressures we limit our identities drastically because we yearn to conform with the so called “norm” of the culture. We as people often tend to confuse biological characterics such as masculinity and femininity, and pressure them to become more of a social influence.

Secondly, humans have the same genetic makeup yet in different cultures/societies gender roles vary indicating greatly that these roles are socially constructed. Lastly, Bandura’s Social Learning Theory is the main driving force for gender roles being socially constructed, as gender roles are learnt from one another. Gender roles are usually constructed through the application of the two sex qualities, masculinity and femininity (masculinity being the qualities associated with men and femininity being the qualities associated with women). These two sex qualities are usually taught to children directly and indirectly through family, friends and other members of society. One direct way masculinity and femininity are taught to children is through schooling.

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

In regards to the theory of social constructionist, gender roles and stereotypes are a creation of society and its culture. This creation of social roles

Reality is not an objective thing that is imposed upon us, but is created by us. Reality does not exist externally but internally, as each individual or group interprets it, and is always changing. Due to these concepts sociologists often speak about the “social construction of reality” which is essential to understand when attempting to explain human social behavior. Since realty is the basis of people’s actions, W. I. Thomas states, “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”. The “social construction of reality”, human social behavior and W. I. Thomas’s statement are three concepts that fit hand in hand and are important when trying to explain one another.

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

stereotypes of social roles based on gender. It comes as no surprise that both acts of racism and sexism often, if not always, results in the discrimination as well as prejudice towards people of different races, ethnicities, as well as

The social construction of gender is composed of implicit and explicit rules that people are supposed to follow. In failing to live by these norms it leads to individuals to be labeled as dysfunctional. People unconsciously try to live by these rules because they want to be part of this social world and hope not to be identified as different. People learn these rules and expectation by interacting with one another. Individuals socializing get a better understanding of how one should act and behave. Scott Coltrane