CSS Gender Studies Notes
Social Construction or Social Construct
Social Construction or Social Construct is the idea that “[r]ace, class and gender don’t really mean anything. They only have a meaning because society gives them a meaning. Social Construction is how society groups people and how it privileges certain groups over others For example you are a woman or a man because society tells you that you are, not because you choose to be ….. Just like it tells you what race you‘re classified as and what social class you belong in. It is just a social process that makes us differentiate between what’s normal and what’s not normal (Flores)
According to the author of “Night To His Day: The Social Construction of Gender,” Judith Lorber, the social construction of gender begins ”with the assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia look like at birth” (55). When a baby is born, the first thing a doctor does is look at the baby’s genitalia in order to determine whether it will be a boy or a girl; this is the beginning of the gender process of social construction. After they are classified as boy or girl, parents become part of this societal process as they start dressing them with colors that identify their gender. The “normal” thing to do in this case would be for baby girls to be dressed in pink and baby boys to be dressed in blue. It is just not normal to dress your baby boy in pink or your baby girl in blue, right? The reason for this is because society has made colors become a symbol to distinguish boys from girls. After this, as children grow up they start learning how they are supposed to act by observing and imitating the people of the same gender as them; girls should act like their mommy and boys should act like their daddy. Each gender is expected to dress and act in a certain way, but these behaviors then lead to stereotypes.
