Essay 2: It’s all Socially Constructed
Gender as a Social Construct Understanding the difference between sex and gender is essential for determining how society constructs the idea of gender. Sex is the biological differences that separate males from females (Conley 2015). This includes all innate differences between the sexes including chromosomal differences, and differences in reproductive organs. Everything concrete between males and females is attributed to sex. On the other hand, gender includes the social behaviors and arrangements that are built around each sex category (Conley, 2015). In other words, gender is only a social position, such that women act different than men do allowing them to live in different orbs of society. Gender …show more content…
Ethnicity is a characterization that is voluntary, embraced by group members, fluid, based on cultural differences, and nonhierarchal (Conley, 2015). People can belong to multiple ethnicities and one ethnicity isn’t better than another. Unlike ethnicity, race is a social construct that is used to create a social hierarchy. Race is based on power, it is involuntary, imposed on an individual by others, based on physical differences, and extremely hierarchal (Conley, 2015). People can only belong to one race, the race that the rest of society classifies them as. Since race is utilized as a way to classify people into a hierarchy, is used strictly on a social basis, it is considered a social …show more content…
A class system is a hierarchal system based on economical standing, made up of cohesive and oppositional groups that have limited social mobility (Conley, 2015). Especially in capitalist societies, class differences are often socially constructed. Capitalist societies are those in which property is mostly privately owned, and prices are determined by market place competition (Conley, 2015). Since in capitalist economies there is not a lot of government control, society has a lot of room to interpret different class
Gender as a Social Construct Understanding the difference between sex and gender is essential for determining how society constructs the idea of gender. Sex is the biological differences that separate males from females (Conley 2015). This includes all innate differences between the sexes including chromosomal differences, and differences in reproductive organs. Everything concrete between males and females is attributed to sex. On the other hand, gender includes the social behaviors and arrangements that are built around each sex category (Conley, 2015). In other words, gender is only a social position, such that women act different than men do allowing them to live in different orbs of society. Gender …show more content…
Ethnicity is a characterization that is voluntary, embraced by group members, fluid, based on cultural differences, and nonhierarchal (Conley, 2015). People can belong to multiple ethnicities and one ethnicity isn’t better than another. Unlike ethnicity, race is a social construct that is used to create a social hierarchy. Race is based on power, it is involuntary, imposed on an individual by others, based on physical differences, and extremely hierarchal (Conley, 2015). People can only belong to one race, the race that the rest of society classifies them as. Since race is utilized as a way to classify people into a hierarchy, is used strictly on a social basis, it is considered a social …show more content…
A class system is a hierarchal system based on economical standing, made up of cohesive and oppositional groups that have limited social mobility (Conley, 2015). Especially in capitalist societies, class differences are often socially constructed. Capitalist societies are those in which property is mostly privately owned, and prices are determined by market place competition (Conley, 2015). Since in capitalist economies there is not a lot of government control, society has a lot of room to interpret different class