Social Construction of Reality

1. Social Construction of Reality • Theory: Post-Modernism • Abstract thoughts • Applications to Gender Relations • How did I get to be gendered?

2. Social Construction of Reality • Our view of reality may not be entirely, or even mainly, “rational" or objective but may rather be a Human/Social Construction of Reality that is itself based on the promptings and cues provided by innate Human Nature.

3. We take our everyday world for granted • Originates in thoughts and actions, we maintain these realities as we live, as we think and act • Because reality is in our heads, it is then embedded in the inter-subjective meanings (we share an idea of reality) • Part A: I know the world consists of multiple realities • Part B: I move from one reality to another • Part C: I experience this transition as a kind of shock • Part D: My attentiveness and perspective shift

4. Here and now = normal • Tools • Beliefs: God is an old man • In this class, you experience a shift in the here and now • God is or might be a SHE

5. Application • Gendered Identities • Socially constructed, both voluntarily and involuntarily • Forced, sanctioned, physically beaten into acting one way • Ex. Gay Bashing • Becoming gendered can be easy or torturous • Suppress their sense of themselves to survive

6. Gender • Definition of Gender • Is a set of activities • Is something we “do” • It is a managed property • We don’t have it, we do it. • We do it in every situation, in every interaction, and in every institution. • We bring gender, we produce our gender and we keep re-producing it.

7. Gender Identity • Based on differences • Based on power