Are All Social Constructs Bad?

construct, this leads to the illusion that reality itself is a social construct. For example, since the language we use to describe gender is a social construct, gender itself must then be a social construct. It then follows that, if we deconstruct the language used to describe gender, then we effectively deconstruct and hence abolish the reality of gender itself (which would theoretically cure the problems of sexism, homophobia and transphobia!). Of course, all this is nonsense that won't lead us anywhere. It won't lead to anything constructive. All this will do is to cause a huge amount of unnecessary confusion throughout society, making proper rational debate impossible.

In conclusion, the attempt to deconstruct 'social constructs' that are actually not social constructs but actually cold hard reality, is a consequence of both critical theory's overly paranoid view towards the apparent reality, and postmodernism's tendency to conflate language with reality. These futile attempts won't have any effect on the reality itself, but its harm is in causing widespread confusion around the use of language, hampering proper rational debate and preventing the resolution of important social problems.

Are All Social Constructs Bad?

Gender isn't a social construct. But some other things that most of us value, including institutions like marriage, concepts like liberty, norms around decency and civility, and

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values like free speech, are indeed social constructs. Critical theory's attitude is that all these social constructs are oppressive, and need to be deconstructed. But is this true?

To answer this question, let's consider why critical theory wants to deconstruct almost every social construct. As I previously explained, critical theory inherits the Western Marxist view that all the culture in a given era is in the service of the underlying economic system and its privileged class. Furthermore, it also inherits the Gramscian idea of 'cultural hegemony', that the culture also serves to prevent oppressed people from seeing their real interests and keep them working within the existing system. If one believed these things, one would naturally be inclined to see oppression everywhere in the existing culture. One would naturally wish to abolish all the existing culture, and hope to start all society anew.

However, the Western Marxian and Gramscian views of culture are not proven facts, they are merely the opinions of some thinkers. On the other hand, it is a fact that our existing culture includes invaluable inheritance that has been passed down through hundreds of generations. Our cultural institutions are the product of centuries of evolution, and previous generations from long ago had to learn many lessons, often by the difficult way, to shape these institutions into what they are today: institutions that are suited to human nature as dictated by our biology, and can effectively bring out the best in humans while mitigating the less ideal

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