Everything You Know is Not True, You Made It Up

We are obsessed with forcing everything to make sense. It is part of human nature to explore and to question and to understand the seeming chaos that surrounds us. We invented religion and science to explain what it means to exist and how we exist at all; it is the process of rationalizing. This process is at the very core of what it means to live.

The paradox is that nothing around us has inherent meaning. If you had never seen a book before, you might think it to be stock for a fire. Had you had never encountered a bird, you might believe extraterrestrial aliens were invading.

Despite the relativity of our world, we have given it meaning; we have learned to see the universe in a way that makes sense to us. However, the lens through which we have learned to perceive is also not inherent. Countless variables, such as culture, time, and location, distort our perception. This is the basis of social construction.

This semester I learned that everything I thought was true isn’t… or at least, only partially. Everything I have ever known is a construction of  “reality.”

A prime of example of this is color. Color seems to be a fundamental part of the world, one that exists independent of human perception. Though this is true, how we see color is greatly influenced by how we have constructed it. When looking at the color spectrum (above), it may seem odd that such a long and diverse portion is described with only one word, “blue.” Comparatively, the slim sections of orange and yellow receive one word apiece.

This plot takes a twist when Russian comes into the tale. In this language, the color spectrum is divided differently than in English, a phenomenon called “the Russian Blues.” The American “blue” is the Russian “goluboy” and “siniy,” two distinct colors that differ to native speaker as much as “yellow” and “orange” do to Americans.

The Russian Blues indicate that we have constructed our perception of color. The divisions of the color spectrum are not innate natural phenomenon, but are instead our attempt at rationalizing color. The reason that we perceive light blue and dark blue as different shades of blue is not because they inherently are so, but because our language constructs them as so.

This concept can be applied far outside the world of color. Social constructions are what give rationality to every aspect of our lives. The way we divide (and therefore perceive and understand) emotions, intelligence, beauty, and values, just to name a few, are how we create meaning.

There are four main social constructions in the field of sociology. These are race, class, gender/sex, and and sexual orientation. It is impossible to imagine a world in which these categories do not exist because they are fundamental to our society on both a micro and macro scale.

That said, why is it that these factors cause so much hate? Why is skin pigmentation, the amount of money we have, and who we love such a big deal?

This semester I have been exploring these questions and trying to understand the causes and effects of social construction. This has made me more aware of the way I categorize myself and others. As much as constructions are an absolute necessity, there are also limits to their applications, and by understanding these limits, I feel that we are able to create a better society for everyone.

~Luisa