Not that I advocate violence, but not beating your kids, selling them on the street, or making them work in a factory is also a social contract.
I let my kid go all flower child about the socks. he got athletes foot. Socks SPECIFICALLY are not a social construct. they prevent athletes foot.
Hygiene IS a social construct, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there for a good reason.
Exactly. Not all social constructs are bad.
Hygiene is not a construct regardless. I swear people just go on the internet and say things.
Good point, kid, and here’s another one: those toys you want me to buy you are a social construct. Playtime? Yep. Social construct. Shall I keep going? Video games are next.
With clothing specifically, it generally has a purpose. Socks can make you more comfortable, warm up your feet, pull sweat away from your skin and generally reduce odors… Not all of those in all cases, mind you, but depending on the circumstances and the type of sock, any/all of these could be the case.
Undergarments in general have similar stories.
All undergarments also play a role in keeping your over garments cleaner. Changing out your underpants and throwing on yesterday’s jeans can get you through a day with nearly no compromises… Depending on how dirty your jeans get on an average day.
Over clothes protect you from getting dirty to a limited extent, they’ll block/absorb spills that reduces the amount you have to wash/bathe/shower… It’s easier to just throw on a new shirt than get into the shower and clean yourself up. Same with pants and other over garments.
Outerwear usually provides a protective element, eg jackets can help prevent things like thorns from scratching you, or keep you warm in cold weather, or dry in wet weather…
Clothes, to me, are a useful thing to be wearing, each piece serving it’s own small function, all of it coming together to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
There’s plenty of social constructs, this is true, but clothing definitely has a practical purpose, along with so many other things.
Socks have a practical use, they wick sweat away from your feet - this is practical in low temps where you will wear a cotton sock with a wool sock on top of it
In cold temps I just wear a wool sock. Cotton is cold.
The cotton will dry as the wool absorbs the sweat from it
Could save you a toe
Reminds me of the time I saw people arguing on Reddit about the phrase “time is a social construct” where some people were completely incapable of understanding what that means and conflating the concept of time with the fundamental physics thingymcgee (idk how to call it and entity feels wrong).
People were trying so hard to explain that minutes, months, seasons, etc. are all arbitrary things made up only for them to retort with “but a year is a full rotation of the sun” or “seasons exist because that’s how the planet changes its climate”.
the fundamental physics thingymcgee (idk how to call it and entity feels wrong)
Your not wrong, “thingymcgee” is the technical term but it’s still a social construct just like gravity.
It is a social construct, and we live in a society… so put your damn socks on
“Attitudes against smacking children are also a social construct…”
with this heat wave, wearing any clothes is also a social construct.
More like: not wearing bedouin robes: https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-08-16/the-bedouin-lesson-a-scientific-study-proves-robes-are-the-best-garment-to-wear-in-the-desert-heat.html
In desert heat. Humidity is a thing.
Parents feeding their kids is also a social construct. The Ancients tossed their kids in the salt mines quite early.
The children yearn for the mines
You see, in this world there’s two kinds of children, my friend: Those with Playstation 5s and those who dig.
I mean, if you have daughters send em to the work the corner. Probably a much better ROI if you can overlook being your daugher’s pimp.
Sadly, the younger the daughter, probably the better ROI both over time and initially. Now I feel gross for recognizing that evil exists in this world as more than just a concept, some people embody it.
Some social constructs serve a purpose.
I like Max Stirner’s perspective. Like you said, they can be useful - but we can also give them too much authority over us. It’s important to be aware of that.
Exactly. Money is a useful construct, but if you look at everything associated with it it’s insane. A tool for tracking the value of goods and services has resulted in wall street, crypto currency, and people burying gold in their yards. It’s become a status symbol to hold this placeholder for labor without doing labor.
I’m not necessarily on board with a moneyless society anytime soon, but I am definitely currency critical.
Currency is an excellent example.
Groups or organizations are another.
Yeah!
Mammals are a social construct. They still serve a purpose.
What matters is what purpose they serve. Not many people are opressed by the concept of mammals.Yeah, fuck socks! They don’t own me!
Exactly! “Boys” socks, “girls” socks, no - my socks.
Why are socks gendered.
Exactly!
'Your allowance is a social construct, so I guess we won’t be doing that anymore…"
Nick sounds like a dipshit if he can’t figure out how to argue against socks being a social construct.
Alright kid, do you know what isn’t a social construct? Foot fungus. You know what prevents foot fungus, and fungus that literally eats your skin and enlarges your toenails 3 times their normal height from the bed of your nail and is incredibly hard to treat and cure? The social construct of dry socks.
At this point you Google pictures of athlete’s feet, toenail fungus, and open the yeast you bought yesterday and make them smell it.
Socks serve a practical purpose when combined with shoes. They prevent rubbing (blisters) and they keep the skin cells and oils from your feet from the insides of your shoes.
Shoes serve a practical purpose in that they protect your feet from rocks, glass, and hot pavement. Did our ancestors need shoes? No. But humans have made our environments less friendly to bare feet
Our ancestors DID need shoes. Footprints in South Africa dated to be between 75K and 136K years old show footwear in use. We invented shoes possibly 100,000 years before we invented written language.
Do they show shoes or do they show sandals?
Normally not a big difference, footwear is footwear. But, if we’re talking about socks, then the difference becomes relevant again.
Undetermined. Just the bottom of the shoes made an imprint.
I’m betting crocs.
What are you talking about? The oldest shoe we’ve found is roughly 10000 years old.
Our ancestors absolutely needed shoes. That’s why they made them.
The natural world is pretty unfriendly to bare feet, too.
Feet will naturally build up thick, tough, resilient calluses in natural environments. There have been some interesting studies done on this topic with indigenous groups.
I would encourage you to take a hike through Greenland barefoot and come back to me with the “humans have made our environment less friendly to bare feet” line. It is, for the most part, the exact opposite that is the case. Nature is not friendly to bare feet in the slightest hence why humans have been wearing shoes long before recorded history.
It’s really social norms, not anything else. There are probably more sharp and pointy things in the wilderness, then where we walk day to day.
My dream would be able to walk around the office barefoot and have it not even be considered weird.
Hookworm infections are definately in decline due to wearing shoes. Ill take shoes over hookworms.
I don’t think anyone’s feet would enjoy walking on asphalt at noon at 35°+
Plus people who lived in the wilderness famously had long lives
Not really. Socks used to be the layer of what you wore first if needed, and then wrapped your feet in animal skins as the extra outer layer we would now consider “shoes.” Shoes and socks were just sort of a combined foot bag/bundle for thousands of years, and many cultures developed socks and/or shoes independently, meaning they are not a social construct if numerous cultures are inventing them for practical purposes.
Having a parent who clothes and feeds you is a social construct too. Funny how people think that “social construct” means that something is bad or should be dismissed when none of us would be here without social constructs.
At least this time the argument is being made by the only age group where I would give them a pass for being stupid. Unless that kid is past the age of 12, that is.
I think the point is the fact it’s a social construct on its own is neither pro or against the thing itself, rather that it can/should be able to be questioned.
Yes wearing socks is a social construct, but it provides inherent benefits such as reducing the smell produced by your feet and lingering in the shoes. It also helps protect your feet further in some ways then just a shoe alone would.
Yeah often “x is a social construct” as an argument means “you’re treating it as if its immutable and a given”
Sure, things should be questioned, but 9 out of 10 times where I have seen someone bring up social construct as an argument it has always been negative, always used to dismiss the so-called social construct. I can’t really recall a single time where it has been used by people who weren’t going through a rebellious phase where it’s all about being a contrarian and rarely about being genuinely curious about the validity of this and that social construct. Sometimes I have also seen things that are objectively not social constructs being labeled social constructs so I have a hard time taking it seriously when it’s brought up.
Yeah I don’t disagree that a lot of the time, especially when used by kids or edge lords it’s moreso just a way to try to end conversation, but I do think it’s worth having that discussion when it comes up if they’re in good faith.
Like here the op should absolutely explain why it is a social construct instead of what it appears they’re implying they do which is just… Either give up or probably force the kid to do it anyway without explaining.
I was one of those kids who always asked why and most adults just wanted me to shut the fuck up. 🤷♂️ I definitely also was an edge lord in my teens and grew out of that for the most part, but throughout I didn’t lose my curiosity.
I think a lot of kids have that curiosity beaten out of them unfortunately and we should try to encourage it more. Idk tho I swore off having kids
Definitely. I also think that this specific sock case is pretty innocent and a good excuse to have a stimulating discussion with the kiddo about it. I also don’t get why the parent appeared to have just given up, because I do think that one of the most fun conversations I have ever had have been when I talked with kids about how the world works and they ask me questions where I have to think before answering.
And I am completely agreeing with you that it is worth talking about if people are in good faith. It was just never something I came across in the wild a few years back. It was, as you said, always used as a way to end a discussion and actually to get people to not question anything. It’s a social construct, ergo it is bad and questioning why it’s supposedly bad makes you a bigot. So I just have a very ingrown adverse reaction to that term whenever I see it.
Sucks that your inquisitive nature was dampened, but honestly, I think it’s one of the great things we can do for ourselves in adulthood - keep asking questions and find the answers ourselves. I went through a weird knowledge-gathering phase for a few years while working on a worldbuilding project. Got into things I would have never thought about otherwise. Just constant questions about how this and that works, what is this, what is that? Why are things like this? Who does this and that in society? How are continents formed? Where does coffee grow any why? Do dreadlocks remain dreadlocks as they grow? (They do) How were languages formed? How were alphabets formed? How are parasites beneficial to the ecosystem? Can you surgically change a person’s eye color? (You can) How did the Ottoman Empire fall and why? Would gooseberry lollipops be popular with kids? How long does it take to bake bread in a volcano? How old is the oldest tree in the world? (That’s how I learned about Prometheus and the infuriating end to a 5000+ year long lifespan because one stupid university graduate decided that cutting it down for science was more important than letting it live).
Yadda yadda yadda. Honestly, it becomes kind of addictive once you get going with these types of questions. It’s a lot of fun. I hope you still ask questions, my friend! Don’t let that part of you die 🤗
Right on!
Luckily I ignored everyone telling me to stop and once I got the internet… Yeah similar to your paragraph lol the rabbit hole of how and why is deep!
So glad to hear it! And yes, oh God, how deep that rabbit hole goes! What are some crazy/interesting places you have ended up?
I’ve never really had many techy friends/family members so that’s where a large amount of my own research/rabbit holes usually go lol.
Like a few months ago I did a whole home server/homelab setup with proxmox several LXCs etc just from a desire to learn. I found Linux way back at age 12 but didn’t really dig too far beyond being able to sit in the corner of our empty house so I could reach my neighbors shared wifi and watch anime/Yt (laptop literally did not function on windows XP when it was gifted to my dad for comparison lol)
Powerautomate for work has been a great time sink and a ton to learn there still and I’m learning how to do sysadmin and web coding things as well.
For like rando interesting facts, it’s hard because without a trigger I can’t usually just come up with a fact even though I might have gone down a 20+tab Wikipedia rabbit hole in a subject haha
