Social Constructs - Part 1

Social constructs - what are some examples: gender, race?

I would qualify a social construct as any category that subordinates a population based upon a bodily feature such as sex or skin-color. It is immediately evident that these categories reinforce a social hierarchy in which "the other" is a subjected person. Bodies are subjected and hegemonic practices are reproduced in part due to the dominant population's ability to nominate the subordinate class. There is power in appropriating the ability to name something - the utilization of language, words, as their associated connotations. For example, referring to a man as a "woman" performs the work of emasculating a male. For a male, being called a "woman" may refer to the absence of power (both physically, socially, and economically) and the pretense of being a passive subject ready to be penetrated (yes, this is a sexual reference). Conversely, if a woman is referred to as a "man," she is something unnatural - a monster. In many environments or cultures, women in positions of are considered to be monstrous; the presence of "the other" is unnatural within the hegemonic order.