1.2 The Family: A Socially Constructed Idea
Elizabeth B. Pearce
To begin our study of contemporary families in the United States, we will first define an important concept that is used for a large portion of this book: social constructions. A social construction is a mutual understanding and accepted reality created by members of a society rather than determined by biology or the natural world.
Is there anything that humans have created that holds no real value in the natural world, yet has a great deal of value assigned to it? If you are thinking of cash, you’re right on the money (figure 1.1). Humans have determined that certain pieces of paper and metal objects are worth an agreed-upon value. One of the ways that we can tell money is a social construction is that it varies from culture to culture and over time. When you visit another country, the United States dollar bill has to be “exchanged” for money that has a different appearance and value.
Social constructions also relate to behavior and activities. For example, what food would you expect to see on the menu when you go out for breakfast in the United States? What if the eating place were described as a “Mexican” restaurant? And what if you traveled to another country, like Korea? What is eaten for breakfast varies from culture to culture and even from person to person. And yet, in general, we have a socially constructed idea of what is typically breakfast food in the United States: eggs, bacon, cereal, toast, and fruit, but not vegetables, noodles, pinto beans, or hot dogs.
One of the ways that you can recognize that something is a socially constructed idea is that it differs from place to place and changes over time. In addition, whatever is part of the socially constructed idea (in this case, what typical breakfast foods are) becomes “the norm” or what is expected. While we might welcome trying some different foods for breakfast, they are not seen as the typical or expected American breakfast foods (figure 1.2).
What does this have to do with families? While studying families, we must continually remind ourselves that the idea of the family, and in particular the internalized belief that there is a “normal family,” is a social construction. What is a normal family? I suspect that we can each paint a picture in our heads based on the years we have been exposed to portrayals of families in institutions such as the media, schools, government, and health care.
Generally, the traditional American family has been identified as the nuclear family, most often represented as a male-and-female heterosexual married couple who is middle class, White, and with several children. When society or the individuals within a society designate one kind of family to be traditional, this may imply a value, or a preference, for this family structure with these particular social characteristics, which are the traits that are biologically determined and/or socially constructed. Examples include sex, gender, rac