Social Construction

l Social constructs = “reality by consensus”

l Social constructs include agreed upon “norms” or pervasive attitudes towards everything from our most basic biological functions to our most sophisticated and complex social/cultural structures including educational, political, and religious institutions, the arts, customs, moral, ethics, law, and so forth.

Social Construction and Identity Formation

l Social constructs are enormously powerful in determining our individual and collective identity because they answer profound life questions:

– Who am I? Where do I belong?

– What do I do? How do I do it?

– Where am I? Why am I?

– Who are you? Why are you?

Social Construction & Feminist Deconstruction

l Those in power control social constructs for their own benefit.

l Those in power present ontologically arbitrary social constructs as “the way life actually is,” that is, as REALITY.

l Lessons learned from the movie The Matrix:

– a) getting to a place of “real reality” may require radical deconstruction of existing social constructs;

– b) the act of deconstruction is inherently dangerous and may require the ultimate sacrifice.

Social Construction & Feminist Deconstruction

l Lessons learned from the counter-culture upheaval and cultural wars of the late 1960s and early 1070s:

– Deconstruction is relatively easy, even fun.

– Don’t “deconstruct” your house in the middle of an ice storm; anarchy sucks!

– Have a “reconstruction plan” because, like it or not, social constructs will always be part of human social/cultural experience

The Radical Response as Feminist Deconstruction

Ann Lobdell’s presentation:

• a classic radical, deconstructionist response to religious social constructs

• she “deconstructs” Episcopalian religious structures (in her life) and replaces them with experiential, mythic, ritual, doctrinal, ethical, and social dimensions constructed from wicca and neo-pagan traditions

• Why?

Why? The Quest for Balance in Power

l The is nothing inherently “wrong” with social constructs; problems emerge in how power is conceived and applied in social constructions.

l Two models for power in any social construct (see The Chalice & The Blade):

– The dominator model (mode = ranking)

– The partnership model (mode = linking)

The Velcro Theory of Social Constructs

l Social constructs, upon conception, are like clean, uncluttered spheres covered in Velcro (everything sticks to it!)

l During the process of social evolution, the sphere “collects” both the positive and negative “stuff” in any culture.

l Deconstruction is about “cleaning the sphere,” and feminists have lead the way!

Cycles of Deconstruction & Reconstruction

l Throughout all human experience, civilizations rise and fall and rise again on cycles of deconstruction & reconstruction.

l At the same time, each human being, to some extent, goes through the same process in response to rites of passage such as birth, death, tragedy, coming to adulthood, etc.

l Often times the arts (painting, music, poetry, dance) can be an exercise in deconstruction.