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Social Constructionist Definition

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Social constructionists assert that things exist only as the result of the given value, and everything in the world does not have essential characteristics. Take the meaning of gender as an example to examine this notion. According to De Beauvoir’ (1949) argument from the ‘The Second Sex’, women’s ‘characteristics’ and ‘femininity’ are neither natural nor given, so one is not born but becomes a woman. In fact, the concept of the distinction between femininity and masculinity are crucial to the meaning of gender. For most people, masculine female or feminine male are ‘abnormal’ to the ideal gender norms, and sometimes need a ‘psychological therapy’. Accordingly, social constructionist claims that gender is a social construction that changes
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The main thesis of Dorothy Sayers' article is "a woman must be accepted as a human being, a real human being of the feminine sex. " Male and female are terms used by people in order to describe man and woman in today's society. These terms, however, not only describe opposite sex but it also demands these opposite sex to fit into its categories. The society expects that a man is to act as a male and a woman is to act as a female.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

The article is based on how social construction theory is based on the idea of “natural,” rather than based on invariant result of the body, biology, or innate sex drive. Whiles essentialism in the study of sexuality as believe that a human behavior is “natural,” that is predetermined by genetic, biology, or physiological mechanism that doesn’t change. The perspective of moving away from essentialist framework that challenged the “natural” status, suggesting that human’s gender and sexuality is called into question. In the article, “Social Construction Theory: Problems in the History of Sexuality,” Carole Vance argues that social construction violates idealistic of ideology, and raise status question.

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1023 Words | 5 Pages

We disembody gender, which refers to the symbolism of masculinity and femininity that we connect to being male-bodied and female bodied (Wade and Ferree 2015:5). Using it as a guiding logic with which to understand not to just people, but the world around us. We understand this through social construction, a process by which we make reality meaningful through shared interpretation (25). For example, social class is a social constructed entity. Even though most agree that class represents a universal situation and its meaning often contextually located because it can vary from one society to another what class really is.

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604 Words | 3 Pages

Gender is “a social construct that prescribes the roles, attitudes,

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1101 Words | 5 Pages

Gender stereotypes have been around for centuries, dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. It was once believed that men’s lives were made up of many stages, known as the “ages of man”. These stages began with the physical and emotional maturity processes and ended with the man’s involvement in work and public affairs. However, the stages of a woman’s life were not mentioned at all. A woman was thought to be a daughter, wife or mother; either married or to be married.

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1289 Words | 6 Pages

Constructing Gender Being a male, I notice the male gender constructing

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845 Words | 4 Pages

Social Constructionism Social constructionism was created as an attempt to understand the nature of reality. It is a theory that conveys the importance of not having an obstructive meaning. Individuals in society create their own world based on social interactions, influences, and communications; therefore, every generation has their own perspectives on society and the way the world should function. Throughout this paper, we explained the differences and similarities that we experienced with social constructionism, and how it influenced the perspectives of Generation X versus the Millennial generation.

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227 Words | 1 Pages

Social constructionism views knowledge as a something that is socially created by people. Such as human relationships and how they these relationships affect how people perceive reality. Usually the same groups of people hold the same ideas.

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The aim of this essay is to consider whether the theory and practice of Social constructionism can be understood as consciousness-raising. Social constructionism revealed the unreliability of pure science, and questioned the existence of natural facts, in order to present how social world are constructed by human action and interaction. Firstly, why knowledge is doubted as product of bias will be briefly outlined. At the same time, Durkheim’ and Marx’s points will be considered and compared with social constructionism’ theory. The second part of the analysis will use feminism as a consideration to state how social constructionism’s theory involves value judgment, and how its practices are related to political interests.

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1401 Words | 6 Pages

For the light which she was both her mirror and her body. None could tell the whole of her, none but herself (qtd . in Knudsen). In practice, this means that the role of woman is determined by the charge that she has in each room; when she is in the kitchen her duty was to cook, in children 's room as a mother and in bedroom or living room as wife with the major purpose of pleasing her husband .Indeed, a woman is described and defined by a man andhe observes her accordingly to the context. As Simone de Beauvoir believes a woman ismade, not born and the makers are both the men and society as well (330).Beauvoir indicatesthat women are not born 'feminine ' but are socially constructed to be a woman (feminine) in order to suit in to their place as the oppressed or ' second sex ' within our patriarchal

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122 Words | 1 Pages

Social constructionism goes beyond the positivist thought of objects and claims that human action constructs meaningful reality rather than existed before consciousness (Crotty, 1998, p. 43). For constructionism, consciousness means referentiality, relatedness, directedness, and “aboutness”; it has nothing to do with purpose or deliberation. Intentionality does not reject objectivism or subjectivism, instead, what intentionality emphasizes is the interaction between the conscious subject and the object of the subject’s consciousness. Constructionists contend that representations of objects or problems in people’s minds vary from the corresponding actual objects or conditions on which they are based. More important, constructionists contend

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528 Words | 3 Pages

Yet should human nature be in the question regarding system constructed. For many man is too fickle and prone to violence and that states should be above nature or based on principles rather than universal values. Social Darwinism frequently over history has been used justify many social injustices or the most awful of tragedies. The nature of man is called into question frequently by Hannah Arendt who states that Himmler constructed terror “on the assumption that most people are … first and foremost jobholders, and good family men. … [who] for the sake of his pension, his life insurance, the security of his wife and children, … was ready to sacrifice his beliefs, his honour, and his human dignity.”

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2111 Words | 9 Pages

In her detailed description of woman’s “situation,” Beauvoir analyses how women are made to give up transcendence, their existential right, and adopt a constrained, repetitive imprisonment. She asserts that“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (Beauvoir, “Introduction”). In the same study, “The Second Sex”, she also stresses (while talking about woman) that “She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute – she is the Other” (Beauvoir, “Introduction”).This “circumscribed, repetitive imprisonment” and the process of “becoming a woman”(Beauvoir, “Introduction”) is what leads to the formation of “cultural constructs” that become the definition of a woman’s existence. Drawing on these ideas of Beauvoir, writer and critic Toril Moi explains the term “femininity” as a “cultural construct” in her essay “Feminist, Female, Feminine”.

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1255 Words | 6 Pages

On the one hand, most people probably behave in certain ways to get along with other members of the society, unwittingly corresponding to the deeply entrenched social norms called “Codes,” the concept introduced by William Pollack in his writing, “Real Boys”. On the other hand, there is an exception: numerous individuals around the world nowadays get confused about defining themselves on the scale of the masculinity and femininity. One may come up with question like this: “Given that most people seem to live their lives with the gender they were born with and have no problem

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1384 Words | 6 Pages

Author of Confessions of a Sociopath, M. Thomas, states that “When you grow up as a girl, it is like there are faint chalk lines traced approximately three inches around your entire body at all times, drawn by society, particularly other women, who somehow feel invested in how you behave, as if your actions reflect directly on all womanhood” (Thomas 150). This statement exemplifies the influence and manifest of social construct in society. Construct is the basis for all social structures with gender having the strongest influence over social construction and roles. Within the scope of Gender Construction, society and culture create gender roles, which are defined as ideal or appropriate behavior for a person of that specific gender. The World

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