Social Construction

Essay # 104504

Gender and Sexuality
Sociology

Social Construction

A personal view of the social construction of race, gender, class and sexuality as it pertains to individuals.

2,182 words () | 9 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how social construction is an ambiguous term. It is not real and it is not an illusion; it falls somewhere between these two extremes. The paper contends that regardless of its ambiguity, social construction is a continuous process propagated by political, economic, and social forces and shapes the values and meanings that people assign to different categories and provides a lens through which individuals view both the world and themselves. The paper also examines how social construction affects areas such as race, class, gender, and sexuality and a close analysis reveals that all four of these areas demonstrate an intricate intersectionality, making it hard to define one without discussing another.

From the Paper:

"Condoleezza Rice is an upper-class black female who currently serves as the United States Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. Condoleezza was born in 1954, the same year that the United States Supreme Court made a decision regarding the Brown v. Board of Education case (Condoleezza Rice). This court case resolved that segregating black and white children into different schools was detrimental to the learning of the children. When Rice was eight years old, one of her classmates, Denise McNair, was killed by a bomb. White supremacists had bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which was composed mainly of African-American students, and children died as a result. This was a tumultuous time in American History due to segregation and severe racism occurring in plain sight. There is no doubt that this event had an enormous impact on the life of Condoleezza Rice."

Sample of Sources Used:

Baynton, Douglas. "Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History." Rothenberg 93-101.
Brodkin, Karen. "How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America." Rothenberg 38-50.
Buck, Pem Davidson. "Constructing Race, Creating White Privilege." Rothenberg 31-36."Condoleezza Rice." 15 Sep. 2005. Wikipedia. 16 Sep. 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice>.
Gans, Herbert. "Deconstructing the Underclass." Rothenberg 103-109.
Kimmel, Michael. "Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity." Rothenberg 81-92.