Social Construction Essay

Social Construction is a rule or guideline that society agrees on and agrees to treat is as true. The rules or guideline created by society are not an objective fact. The created rules may not be an objective fact or law, but they are rules that society will follow. By following these rules, everyone can smoothly live their life without annoying or disrupting each others lives. Once someone breaks one of these rules, society will punish the person as if they had broken a law. One example of this is the slimness norm put on woman. McLorg describes that “The slimness norm and its concomitant narrow beauty standards exacerbate the objectification of women. Women view themselves as visual entities and recognize that conforming to appearance expectations

By labeling the perpetrator, it is an example of Labeling Theory. Emile Durkheim, the main person behind Labeling Theory, describes that are labels society/institution gives to us and “sticks” to us. Whatever label or name is put on a person, society will accept the label and believe it to be true. An example of this would be diagnosing mental health patients. Rosenhan says that “rather than acknowledge that we are just embarking on understanding, we continue to label patients ‘schizophrenic,’ ‘manic-depressive’, and ‘insane,’ as if in those words we had captured the essence of understanding” (Rosenhan 1973:57). Labels are a powerful tool to try to understand a person. However, when labels are not used accurately, the person can be affected tragically. The power of a label can make or break what and how a person is. People will do whatever it takes to please society and not break social rules in fear of being disowned. These people are following the social norms to be accepted by and society and not repressed by