Have you ever walked into a room and felt at ease because you fit in? Have you ever walked into a room and felt ostracized because you didn’t fit in? This phenomenon occurs because of internalized social construction. Sociology is a discipline that defines this phenomenon. But, if society is to transition from social justice discourse to social justice reform, we must stop orienting social engagement around constructing one another.

Sociology emerged to understand the impact of technological advancements, and institutions on society at large. Unfortunately, in time it evolved into an assessment of social hierarchy, and the divergence between in-groups and out-groups.

Think back to the emergence of Social Darwinism. Darwinism asserted that social identities exist because of biological origins, defining social structures as a reflection of evolutional markers. Structural-functionalism emerged after this era and added that, individual structures and institutional structures interact to serve a purpose. This evolution of sociology as a discipline (between the 1880s-1960s) demonstrates, it has become a discipline of constructing lived experiences.

In my undergraduate research, I viewed diverse sociological perspectives as advocates for dismantling social constructs. However, with no historic marker of reform, I gathered, discourse often ends with 1) further defining a social construct, or 2) gaining a scarlet letter for being too touchy of a topic.

Does 19th and 21st century sociology establish diverse perspectives, yes. Do they also present relevant discourse to advocate towards equality and equity, yes. Unfortunately, sociological discourse inherently engages with varying perspectives, so, audiences often misinterpret contemporary efforts as a proposal for integration into the labeling process. While discourse does promote a specific positionality, the focus is not the label rather the lived inequality. This misorientation not only furthers social construction, but it hinders reform.

Consider the Black Lives Matter Movement. This movement exposes historic and systemic police brutality against the black body. Yet, it was met with the rebuttal “all lives matter”. Because society became so fixated with the labeling of the movement, dismantling the construct of race, as a construct and within the justice system, has yet to be resolved.

The best way to understand contemporary social discourse and address constructed inequities, we must have anthropological discourse. Anthropology is the discipline that examines historic events, culture, geolocation, and social dynamics within human existence. By viewing sociological discourse within the framework of history, culture, geography, location, and social engagement, one can view identity as an intersection of attributes, not a definite label.

Ironically, sociologist unintentionally include anthropology in their discourse. However, fully transitioning towards an observation of social performance, allows for a more fluid recognition of identities as they appear. In essence, social dynamics are only one perspective in identity production.

Take gender for example. In sociology, gender is analyzing constructions of gender that reenforce masculinity and femininity: wearing dresses, having a muscular build. Anthropology will observe the fluid existences of gender (distinct from biological sex), addressing gender holistically in relationship to rituals, behaviors, ideologies, and a constructed set of roles. Anthropology would orient discourse around lived experiences representing gender, regardless of having exposure to them.

For example, “numerous Indigenous communities around the world do not conflate gender and sex; rather, they recognize a third or more genders within their societies” (Natural History Museum). Through this example, regardless of micro labeling processes, gender is also defined by Indigenous gender engagement. Here, gender is not a social construct by reinforcement, instead, gender becomes developed through observing production. It is now based on existing loosely defined behaviors and rituals; the performer makes the identity not the interpretation.

At root, Sociology is only as impactful as the labeled in-group is present. While Contemporary Sociology attempts to transition out of this, the conversation gets lost in the clash of social perspectives. An anthropology-based sociology, would holistically examine humanity based on fact (social beliefs, structures, languages, behaviors, and cultural variations), putting phenomena ahead of assumption.

We must reject expanding the labeling process through sociological hypotheses and reorient around anthropological translation to advocate for deconstruction. This is the first step in turning social justice discourse into actionable reform.

Acknowledgement: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author, not necessarily Our National Conversation as a whole.

Bibliography
Beyond gender: Indigenous perspectives, Muxe. Natural History Museum. (2020, September 15).
https://nhm.org/stories/beyond-gender-indigenous-perspectives-muxe