Everything is a Social Construct
Art by Lily Semnani - 8th Grader in Maryland
Social construct: an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society
The Matrix- considerably the most famous movie of all time. Most notably for its never-before thought of commentary on the illusion of reality. To understand this, we look at the most made-up concept ever; social constructs. When discussing social constructs, using The Matrix is a useful tool; I’ll specifically be using the incredible “Why do you persist” speech made by the main antagonist: Smith.
“Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love.” -Agent Smith; “The Matrix Revolutions”
Before I go on about how brilliant this speech was, let me make the point that I don’t think humans are feeble, existence has no purpose, or love is insipid. With that being said, his main point is spot on. Everything is an illusion. It’s what we make it out to be. We, humans, give every single thing a meaning. We create meaning through social constructs, versions of reality that we as a society have chosen to be generally true. Now, we come to my point. Why I can know that love isn’t insipid and life meaningless, yet still, know that everything is made up; socially constructed.
Not all social constructs are bad.
When you hear the term, you’re most likely hearing it in the context of something like gender: a provably harmful social construct. But there are far more useful constructs than there are bad ones. For example, love. Of course, you could pull up studies and absolutely true things like the fact that in our brains we get increased levels of neurotransmitter dopamine when we feel strong feelings of “love”, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we assigned that biological feeling a meaning. Some social constructs are so incredibly old that they’ve become a part of our evolution like certain emotions. Sadness for example. People, from birth, cry when stressed, sad, or unable to communicate. We assigned that reaction the word “sadness” and called it a day. These are prime examples of extremely useful social constructs. They allow us to communicate with one another and navigate our way through life. And with constructs like love, it makes life happier, better.
But for every useful social construct, there’s a negative one. Many, many negative ones. They lay right under our noses and affect us every single day. Some people more than others. Let’s dive into the word “manly”. The dictionary defines it as “having or denoting those good qualities traditionally associated with men, such as courage and strength”. This is the kind of bullshit that creates toxic masculinity, male’s feeling of superiority, gender dysmorphia, and gender roles. All completely unnecessary. Long ago we assigned the role of protector, warrior, provider to men. Just as long ago we assigned chef, maid, caregiver to women. Let’s discuss the catastrophic harm all of that causes.
When men with more “manly” features, a beard, big muscles, deep voices, are told they’re more “manly”, it automatically gives them a feeling of worthiness or superiority. He’s met the social standard for what makes a man a man. This leads more manly men to enforce that feeling of superiority on women and less manly men. Not only does this put down men with more “feminine” features or mannerisms, but it also opens the gates to harm towards women. Manly men want to use their power over them to get laid, assault them, etc., and give the shamed men a need to redeem themselves, prove to themselves that they are men; also usually leading to harm against women. Now, don’t take any of this to mean that all “manly” men are brutal and harmful. The problem is that so many are.
When facing issues like gender dysmorphia, it’s almost entirely based on what role we give to certain genders. When a trans-man (a man born with XX chromosomes) grows up in a society where a “man’s” social acceptance is based purely on everything that he doesn’t biologically have, it’s harmful. When a trans-man is shown since youth that a certain gender is to dress and act a certain way, one that he doesn’t align with or feel connected to, it’s harmful. Think of how many trans lives would be saved if “manly men” didn’t feel disgusted or threatened by them or how many more trans-men would feel accepted if they could express themselves in a completely free way, with absolutely no gender assigned to it.
The problem is that ignorant people feel that their identity is threatened if we stop labeling it. One's outfit is no less you just because we stop labeling it as feminine. Men can wear dresses and it does not impede on their womanhood.
Every bigot throws the biological factor in your face, but it’s easily disputable. Sure, “males'' have penises and XY chromosomes but why do we apply meaning to it? Why do we assign it a role? The role of protector or provider. Or when talking about women, why do we even assign them the role of “mother”? Sure, biological women are the only ones who can physically produce babies but that doesn’t mean they have to. The ability to doesn't equate to the obligation to, no matter what Ben Parker tells you (Spider-Man reference, I apologize). Women are not obligated to wear dresses, take care of children, or be dainty. Some women want to be sex workers and that’s none of your business. Some women want to draw mustaches on their face with makeup instead of eyebrows, and that’s also none of your business, nor does it make them any less “woman”.
Some social constructions haven’t lasted as long as others like the role of a man or woman, but instead have taken new forms through the decades. The beauty standard. In the 1600s full bodies and double chins were desired; it showed you were wealthy and ate well. By the 1800s corsets were in and the standard as tiny waists and tiny boobs. By the time of Marylin Monroe, the hourglass figure was what was considered the way to look, with shorter curly locks. But in the 1970s and 1980s they wanted toned, aerobic bodies, and big hair. By now (2022), we’ve lived through the thin eyebrows of the 2000s, the media's inability to decide whether they like curves or leanness, natural makeup, or fully done up. And there’s an argument for every single one. “I like a woman with her makeup and hair done always, it shows she’s trying for me.” “I want a girl with natural makeup and long hair, so I know she isn’t trying to impress everyone.” And the same goes for men. “I want a scrawny skater-boy, he’s lean and cool.” “I’m going after a buff, masculine man, bearded, and strong.” Don’t think it just goes for the opposite sex, no, women shame each other just as much as men shame each other. They call women who have plastic surgery “botched” and “fake”, they say that fat women are unhealthy and unhappy. Women who’ve had plastic surgery do it for all sorts of reasons, who are we to stand in the way of their happiness and comfort with themselves? Plenty of skinny women eat burgers and fries every night, not lifting a muscle when it comes to the gym, but we don’t shame them like we do fat women. Studies have shown that an unhealthy diet isn’t the main cause of fatness, so why do we still connect the two? People claim them to be unhappy but how would you know? Is it so unbelievable that someone with a modernly not “ideal” body type can still be happy? The beauty standard has changed and fluctuated more than any other social construct, and in every era of it, we belittle those who don’t apply to it, whether you think you are or not.
The last I’d like to mention is probably the most touchy. Race. Race is a social construct as old as racism. The pigment of our skin is true and real, not a construct, but what we made it mean, is completely constructed; mostly by the white man only a couple of hundred years ago. White society decided that those with darker pigmented skin were less valuable, stupider, expendable, enslavable. They placed them in a box and called that “black”, giving it a whole list of negative connotations to justify how they’d treat them. Those negative connotations have little changed, which is why we still to this day have lynchings, police shootings of innocent black citizens, black babies. One of the many connotations “black” was given is dangerous. Almost every black person you meet will have a story of a white woman clutching her purse around them, just as many black women have stories of being told her protective hairstyle is “unprofessional”, whatever “professional” means. This is why race, while a harmful construct, is one we can’t throw away or ignore quite yet, or at any time soon. As long as people are oppressed based on race, that is how long we must recognize race. We can’t just ignore it because we know all races should be equal. We must look at the facts and fix the issues first. So until race is no longer a factor in conversations, race must further exist.
Before you impose your notion on what you think “woman”, “wealth”, “happiness”, “professional” is, think:
Who is this benefiting? Me.
Is this going to cause harm? Yes.
Is it possible that this person simply wants to experience life and their identity in a way that I don’t understand? Yes.
“Love” is as made up as “woman” and “happiness” as much as “shirt”. Agent Smith is right when he says these are all illusions. But Agent Smith wasn’t happy. Those who experience love or comfort in their identity are. Let people have that. Even if you don’t understand it. Learn to evolve and give new meaning. Throw away the useless constructs we’ve built and create new, more fluid ones. Humans do one thing very well, and that’s evolving. Let’s not stop doing that now.
Sources: Matrix Wiki - Agent Smith "Why do you persist" Speech, What Parts of the Human Brain Correspond to Emotion or Love?, Merriam Webster - Social Construct Defined
