English Blog #5

In the Hanfler article it describes social construction on page 13 as “what we label deviant depends on context and how we interpret the meanings of deviance” and that “deviance is not understood as an objective fact but as constructed and interpreted meanings that are subject to change.”  Basically in essence it is saying that there is no one meaning of deviant and no one set of norms, values or society.  The definitions of all those change depending on the culture or subculture defining them.  

This idea of social construction is represented in the Lorber text by describing how gender and what society sees as the gender norm is constructed by the society that surrounds you.  For example on page 56 it discusses how gender identities are simply shaped by society and that “Western society only has two genders “man” and “woman”.  Some societies have three genders men, women and herdaches or hijras or xaniths.”   This third gender or herdaches are biological males who for the most part live as females.  In addition to this third gender of males there is also a third gender for females in some societies, “There are African and American Indian societies that have a gender status called manly hearted women – biological females who work marry and parent as men, their social status is female-men.”  In this it is interesting how in other societies it is seen fit to have these third types of “gender” in order to express ones typology, where as in our society that isn’t seen as “normal” or acceptable.

The idea of social construction is represented through the Young text by describing how society has constructed one set English language and other linguistics or dialects that infringe on that language are seen as “wrong”.  A good example of this way of thinking is represented with the quote on page 111 “disabuse yo’self of the notion that students have a right to they dialect” and although Young’s argument throughout this article is to fight against one socially constructed language and that everyone should have a right to their own dialect, one that they should be able to integrate into the standard English in both written and oral communication,  Fish argues against him, saying that it should just be seen as learning a second language and “who could object to learning a second language?”

My thoughts on social construction are that it’s not really a new concept to me.  Through my criminal justice classes I have learned how socially constructed norms and values determine what deviance is and what specifically is labelled as deviant behavior.  Definitions of deviance are different depending on cultures, locations and situations.  Social construction on other subjects such as gender and language are very similar in the way that there is no one definition of “normal” even though society may define something as being abnormal that doesn’t mean that it necessarily is.  What really stands out to me from the text is the discussion on the first page of Lorber’s article (page 111), about the child in the stroller who at first the gender is unknown of; “The child in the stroller was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and dark print pants.  As they started to leave the train the father put a Yankee baseball cap on the child’s head. Ah, a boy, I though.  Then I noticed the gleam of tiny earrings in the child’s ears and as they got off I saw the little flowered sneakers and lace trimmed socks.  Not a boy I thought.”  The fact that having others know the gender of this child was so important to both the parents and to Lorber is interesting.  This stood out to me because I don’t personally agree that making sure from the get-go that the gender of someone is known is incredibly important.  I personally spent most of my child hood years dressing like a boy, playing outside with bugs and dirt and I don’t ever remember owning a Barbie.  My parents gave me the option of what I wanted to do, play or dress like, they weren’t worried that someone would see me dressed in a plaid button up boys shirt and wonder if I was a boy or a girl.  I still grew up to conform to the norm of what a girl should act and dress like even though to this day I still don’t have pierced ears.  I think that in today’s society people are so worried that their child is going to grow up to be gay or lesbian that they just shove gender roles on their child way too soon. I loved my childhood and it wasn’t as if my parents forced me to behave like a boy, they just gave me the option between my clothes or my brothers, or a Barbie or a baseball.  In today’s society people are just caught up in feeling that it’s extremely important that everyone appear “normal” and confine to the constructed norms of how girls and boys should act and look like. 

I see social construction played out in my life every day through gender and gender roles.   I see boys act masculine and girls act feminine, boys who are taught that they shouldn’t ever cry and girls who are taught that they can cry at the drop of a hat, in order to get what they want. Fashion is also constructed by society and it teaches girls to wear tight clothes and boys to wear them loose.  It seems as if almost every aspect of life is somehow influenced by social construction however, I feel that especially when it comes to gender norms it is especially visible.