The Role of Language in Relation to the Construction of Social Reality - Essay Example

Discuss the role of language in relation to the construction of social reality when it comes to human sexuality. It will appear reasonable to that the sociological study about human sexuality has been ruled upon or dominated over the past twenty years by many social constructionist and the postmodernist perspectives. It is however, not specific as to whether the thinkers working from this perspective are in the majority, but they do certainly appear to speak with the highest force and try to be the centre of greatest attention. The social constructionist and the postmodernist thinking about human sexual behavior is embedded within the concepts of the renowned philosopher from France Michel Foucault (1978) (Sanderson, 2003). Among the researchers of present day time, few debates are found to be more intense than the debate between essentialism on one hand and social constructionism on the other side. Despite of it, it is often found that these two terms remain undefined or are ill defined. Going by the view of classical essentialism, there are many fundamental real meanings or forms. There is also a lack of continuity between the different forms rather than a continuous variation. These true forms remain constant over time. Modern essentialism is made of a belief which states that there are certain phenomena which are natural, inevitable, and which can be biologically determined. We hence, consider subjects like sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, genetic research, brain research, and endocrine research as some examples for the essentialist approach by focusing particularly about how these approaches of research view and treat sexual orientation as well as attraction. Social constructionism, on the other hand, consists of the belief that reality can be socially constructed and it emphasizes language as a vital means by which we can interpret experiences (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.10).  Essentialism defined The idea about essentialism was found to originate in the works of Plato dated 428-348 B.C (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.10). He suggested that, for example, in a triangle which consists of three sides, no matter of what length of its sides or the combination of its angles were, it would always form a triangle and thus it was discontinuously different from other figures like a circle or a rectangle.  Essentialism was considered to be the philosophical foundation for any positivism in philosophy which was followed up to the twentieth century. Interestingly, it was seen that the term essentialism was generally used by people who were opposed to it, not by those who used to practice it. Essentialism thus had dominated both philosophical and the scientific thought in the Western world. We would thus refer to the above stated form of essentialism as classical essentialism (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.10). Social Constructionism defined The term known as social constructionism has found broad usage in the discipline of social sciences. It is often used frequently by psychologists (Burr, 2003, p.2). It is often used generally to refer to any aspect of social influence on an individual experience. However, it can be used more appropriately to indicate a more specific theoretical paradigm. The fundamental assumption underlying the paradigm is that reality is constructed socially (Berger & Luckmann, 1966, p. 1). This paradigm has its origin in the philosophy related with human experience. According to the The Constructionist Paradigm,  language can provide the basis by which we make understanding or sense of the world. Language provides human beings with the categories and the typifications that are needed to classify events and the persons and to place them in order. Language provides the tool by which it becomes possible to interpret new experiences (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.13). Language or a discourse is absolutely prior to and constitutive to the world. Language provides mankind with the categories that they use to interpret or make sense and meaningful internal phenomena. There can be a strong and a weak version of constructionism while applications in internal sensations, such as emotion (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.13). Foucault had systematically applied the paradigm of social constructionist in human sexuality (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.14). He suggested that sexuality is cannot be described as an essence. It is not any feature like a biological quality or any natural inner drive whose character remains the same across any time and space. It is considered to be a cultural construct. Its meaning has been derived from languages or discourses. Also, each institution in the society has its own discourse about sex, a unique way on thinking and talking on the different arrays of behaviors and the actors who are involved in the sexual expression (DeLamater & Hude, 1998, p.14). The Social Constructionism theory tries to critically examine the taken for granted attitude of human beings (Burr, 2003, p.2) Importance of language Several research papers related with the social psychology of language as well as different studies on language and social interaction has been developed over the past decades across many disciplines which included sociology, psychology etc. Berger and Luckmann claimed language to be an essential component for our existence as human beings. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis stressed the concept that humans view or perceive their world in terms of their own language (Thomas, 1999, p.21). More specifically, it suggested that the social reality which we experience is unique in respect of our own languages. The people who speak languages that are different from our own imagine the world differently, according to individual language. It maintains that the terms for specific phenomena in languages often did not have any precise counterpart in other languages (Thomas, 1999, p.21). There is a relation between any language and thoughts as well as between languages and the actions (Burr, 2003, p.47). Language also helps in building social construction. Language is unique for every human being. Language is assumed to be a bag of labels from which an individual can pick his words to express his thoughts. Language and sexuality Like any other aspect of an individual, sexuality of an individual is also a general feature like his personality or health condition (Burr, 2003, p.41). Sexuality is a complex and an individual phenomenon that is influenced by social norms, its culture, and the personal experience of an individual. As has been mentioned before sexuality is assumed to be socially constructed (Villanueva, 1997, p.2). It is not possible to stretch the origin of sexuality as it is considered something that is given to us. In human beings sexuality should not be considered as a means of procreation as it would then bring no difference between an animal and a human individual. Language also sets it apart. It also can be seen as a case of social constructivism (Burr, 2003, p.42). Also, language can help in bringing out the hidden aspects of sexual preferences in an individual like homosexuality (Burr, 2003, p.56). Homosexuality is a concept that has found acceptability recently in Western societies. The concept is unique in conceptualization the male-male sexual bonds present in other cultures in many ways. Where the western idea of homosexuality assumed a life-long predisposition, other cultures had typically construed the male-male sexual bonds as a temporary phase, as was seen in the initiation rites of the tribes in New Guinea or in ancient Crete, or the age-based relationships seen in ancient Greece (Yee, 2003). An even more striking uniqueness of this Western concept of homosexuality gets revealed when it the concept is contrasted with the male-male sexual and romantic relations seen in Imperial China where it was seen that many male emperors had the luxury of maintaining male harems and their favorite male concubines, and also places where male prostitution specially for the male clients got started till the end of the Qing Dynasty (Yee, 2003). The reason why despite of this, there was no mention of homosexuality in Chinese literature was the fact that it was never accepted as an integral or a defining aspect in the identity of a person. Male-male romantic and sexual relations were often construed as the relationships between two people which opposed the psychological essence that would define either person. Western culture had chosen to conceptualize and divide sexuality in an arbitrary but a unique way and there were indeed several other equally plausible methods to categorize sexuality. Reality is divided arbitrarily to typically create normative categories such as right versus the wrong, acceptable versus the unacceptable, good versus the bad, in addition to create categories such as ingroups and outgroups. This shows that approval in every form of language leads to the construction of a social reality which frames its individuals and their concepts as within inside or outside the boundaries in social norms. So, it becomes dangerous to accept the assumptions of any language and culture without any trying to analyze or examine its own biases (Yee, 2003). Sociological construction of gender and sexuality Social constructionism is related with the gender of an individual and his sexuality. Social construction in gender difference believes in the idea that gender is also socially constructed. This aspect of social construction of gender evolves from the usual social constructionist thought. Social construction of gender separates itself from socialization as the initiating point for gender differences. As such it was said that people did not internalize gender roles as they progressed and grow up but they had responded to changing norms in the society. Children learnt to categorize themselves going by gender in the very early stages of their life (Brickell, 2006, p.89). A part of it comes from the learning as to how to display and perform the gendered identities which were coined as masculinism or femininism. Boys had learnt to manipulate their physical surrounding and social environment through their physical strength or other specialities, while girls learnt to present themselves as an object which was to be put up for show or view.  Children generally monitored their own and the gendered behavior of other people. The children activities that were Gender-segregated created the illusion that the gender differences in behavior reflected the essential nature of a male and a female behavior. Many factors can be affected by gender development one of which is the environment within which the children are generally raised. It was seen that the unresolved conflicts were one of the main causes for developing an irregular personality seen in children and can which often could lead to dangerous effects in their gender orientation. Sociologists often attributed to Judith Butler the concept that the gendered self is often better understood to be a socially negotiated act rather than an innate quality (Brickell, 2006, p.89). These aspects show how languages and social constructionist thought affect gender of an individual which in turn affects the sexuality of an individual. Conclusion Language, social constructionism and human sexuality are all found to be interrelated with each other. Language affects all forms of activities in a human life. The emotions and feelings, his perceptions and assumptions are all conveyed to the society by languages. Social reality can be assumed to be the universe of several socially constructed knowledge that were created by the virtue of our social interactions. Social reality is rooted in our behavior, the languages, the culture and the institutional practices that we follow and highlights most of our perceptions. Although it is mostly the consequence of our inter-subjective practices that we follow, we nevertheless tend to occupy it almost without ever becoming fully aware of the inherent contingent and constructed nature. Sexuality that has its own expression is again ruled by several facets of language. Though it has been present since ancient times, its expression and acceptability had not been fully acknowledged in those times. The present day modern society led by several theories on realizing social constructionism has helped to open many closed doors of human sexuality. Social stigmas attached with homosexuality or same gender relationships have been widely discussed and explored. Homosexuality is not to be considered as a social taboo and acceptance of such areas can definitely pave the way towards making social constructionism a reality. References 1. Burr, V. (2003). Social Constructionism. Routledge 2. Berger, R and Luckmann T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge garden city, Doubleday 3. Brickell, C. (2006), The sociological construction of gender and sexuality, available at , (accessed on 10 August, 2012) 4. DeLamater, J., D. & Hyde, J., S. (1998). Essentialism vs. Social Constructionism in the Study of Human Sexuality. The Journal of Sex Research, 35, No.1, pp. 10-18 5. Sanderson, S., K. (2003), The Sociology of Human Sexuality, available at (accessed on 10 August, 2012) 6. Thomas, L. (1999). Language, Society and Power: An Introduction. Taylor & Francis 7. Villanueva, M., I., M. (1997), The Social Construction of Sexuality: Personal Meanings, Perceptions of Sexual Experience, and Females Sexuality in Puerto Rico, available at (accessed on 10 August, 2012) 8. Yee, N. (2003), Catching The Phoenix, available at: (accessed on 10 August, 2012) Read More