Social Construction 

Social construction is basically society labeling people and putting them into specific groups, (gender, race, age) and giving them meaning. Hanfler says "Constructionist theories emphasizes that what we label deviant depends on context and how we interpret the meaning of deviance". What that means is, each society has their own rules on what is deviant behavior, and therefore, they have their own way of socially constructing. The section of Hanfler's writing that we read focused on tattoos and how they're interpreted. For instance, Hanfler asks "When are tattoos considered "art" and when are they symbolic of gang membership or other identities?"

I most closely related this to the reading "The Social Construction of Gender" by Judith Lorber. Lorber focuses on the fact that gender is a learned thing, it’s not something you’re born with. She believes that social construction starts at birth, because parents dress and treat their children differently depending on their sex. The main connection between these two readings comes from this quote from Lorber, “Western societies have only two genders, "man" and "woman." Some societies have three genders- men, women, and berdaches or hiiras or xaniths. Berdaches, hijras, and xaniths are biological males who behave, dress, work, and are treated in most respects as social women; they are therefore not men, nor are they female women; they are, in our language, "male women." There are Mrican and American Indian societies that have a gender status called manly hearted Women- biological females who work, marry, and parent as men; their social status is "female men"”. This quote shows that some behavior we, in Western Cultures, would define as deviant and would socially construction in a negative way, is much more accepted in some other societies. Would our society be able to adapt to adding a third gender the way other societies do?

I think social construction will always be a problem. People shouldn’t be defined by matters out of their control such as race, age, and gender. There’s no real way to control these things because they’re so deeply engraved into our culture. The one text I didn’t agree with was, “Vershawn Ashanti Young: Should Writer’s Use They Own English?” I personally believe that the way you write in class or in a professional atmosphere, and the way you talk with your friends should be two distinctively separate dialects that shouldn’t intertwine unless that is what the assignment calls for. Also, when Young says “Lord, lord, lord! Where do I begin, cuz this man sho tryin to take the nation back to a time when we were less tolerant of linguistic and racial differences. Yeah, I said racial difference, tho my man Stan be talkin explicitly bout language differences. The two be intertwined” I disagree. I don’t believe that the way you write or talk has much to do with your race. Instead, I think the main factor is your level of education.