#social constructs

Money is a social construct. Weekends are a social construct. Vegetables are a social construct.

That doesn’t mean it’s okay if my paycheck is withheld or my rent is late. Doesn’t mean I don’t luxuriate in sleeping in on Saturday. Doesn’t mean the nutrients in tomatoes or spinach aren’t good for you.

What it means is that the way we think about things is socially constructed, and could be constructed a different way. Why do we base our society around money? What does value mean outside of money? What is “value”? The way we construct it isn’t the only possible way.

Why is a week a cycle of seven days, and five of those days are for working and two of those days are for resting? Could we organize our time differently? Should we? What would that look like? Other cultures don’t/didn’t have seven-day weeks with a five on-two off cycle. It’s not inevitable. It’s historically and culturally specific.

“Fruit” has a scientific definition but “vegetable” does not. Many parts of plants are culinarily defined as vegetables. Fruits (eggplant, avocado, tomato), stems (celery, asparagus), leaves (kale, lettuce), roots (carrots, potatoes, turnips)… all of these are culturally categorized as vegetables. And nutrition advice is based on this cultural categorization. Is a mushroom a vegetable? It’s not even a plant! Why do we categorize it this way? Why isn’t wheat or oats considered vegetables, but corn is, except when it isn’t? Could we categorize our plant-based food other ways?

Calling these social constructs doesn’t mean they’re bad or unimportant. It just calls attention to the fact that they aren’t inevitable. That they could be constructed in different ways, and that is worth thinking about, and thinking about the value we get in constructing things the way we do.

Gender is a social construct.

Romance is a social construct.

[Image description: A tumblr reply, edited blackout-poetry style to read, "a social construct can be wrong".]

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Except we do exist. Because the idea that "male" and "female" are discreet, objective categories is a social construct that can only upheld through continued violence.

Too fucking bad people are too lazy to actually look up what "social constructs" are and would rather double down on being intersexist.

insert the monty python "come look! look at the violence" gif here, with image description.

[ID: Two screenshots from the movie Monty Python and th Holy Grail (1975). The first shows a peasant being attacked by someone in a crown and white robes, who is shouting, “Shut up! Will you shut up?” The peasant just shouts in reply, “Now we see the violence inherent in the system!” The other peasant walks away.

The second shows the peasant struggling in the grip of the nobleman, who shouts again, “Shut up!” The peasant just shouts, “Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”

I say this as someone who’s chronically ill and goes to several doctor’s appointments every month, has been to nearly every hospital in the area and met countless nurses, doctors, specialists, etc: there is zero correlation between a medical professional’s gender and the amount of care and understanding they give to you. The best OBGYN I’ve ever had is male. My male cardiologist literally sucks. The male nurse practicioner at my local urgent care listens better than anyone I’ve seen. The female ultrasound tech I had today was an asshole. My entire gastro office is entirely female-run and incredible. The worst medical gaslighting I’ve ever had was from an office of women. My pcp is a female np and I love her. My PT is male and he’s the doctor I feel the absolute safest with of everyone. All of these can be true, simultaneously, because all of these people are individuals who’s professionalism is not determined by their gender!

Gender does not and never will determine how professional, kind, empathetic, or understanding someone will be. Gender does not play a part in how good someone is at their job. Feminism doesn’t mean assuming women are automatically going to be better than men in any capacity- it means understanding that men and women have an equal capacity to be great or horrible at anything they do, entirely separate from their gender.