The Dangers of Social Relativism
I’ve notice quite a disturbing trend among some of my fellow collegestudents. While waiting outside one day for my 3:35 class to begin, Ioverheard a conversation between some students in a different class whowere also outside. One of the students, a girl probably a year or twoolder than I (and possibly a teacher’s assistant), was engaging theothers in a frank discussion about sexuality and gender. Eavesdroppingon others’ conversations is not a hobby of mine, but considering thisconversation was happening near my usualMonday/Wednesday-between-classes-cigarette-break-spot, I perked up anear and listened.The girl began to explain to her small audience about how gender andsexuality are socially constructed, and have very little meaning beyondwhat “society” gives them. The essence of her claims was that genderroles are something created by the society we live in, and in the samehand, sexuality (be it hetero, bi, or homo) is also sociallyconstructed. According to her argument, the act of coitus has little tonothing to do with procreation, and the commonly-held belief that sexis for procreation is (surprise!) created by society.