Social Construct Essays Example

Social construct can be defined as a phenomenon, social mechanism or category in the society created by a person or faction of people that has been constructed through social or cultural practice. Social construct is a concept or beliefs and practices that have been formed and practiced by a particular group. Social constructs are in actual sense by-products of a series of human choices rather than laws of nature or divine will.
Gender is a commonly used term that refers to the social expectations of behavior that are deemed appropriate for members of the different sexes. It is not linked to the physical attributes of the different sexes. It is based on the socially formed characteristics of feminity and masculinity. Gender and associated gender roles are molded by social forces. Institutions, such as family, media, school or even the military from the site for the construction of gender. The army institution has for a long time been the quintessential masculine institution. The military is essentially one of the most powerful institutions in the United States. It offers employment to thousands of civilians and soldiers, and a big proportion of the national budget goes to the military. The military’s basic level that is the combat has and continue to remain inaccessible to women. The members of the armed forces continue to cite many rationales for not allowing women to serve in combat activities. A lot of advancement has been made over the years from total exclusion of women from the military to partial inclusion to the situation as it is today where the only area that they are not fully involved is in combat. The inclusion of women in soldierly lifestyle has been seen to threaten the distinction between what is female and male. The ability of women to compete successfully as soldiers have been viewed to devalue the vocation. The need to keep gender roles demarcated in the military can be best illustrated by the Marine Corps where the females are put through mandatory classes in hair care, etiquette, and make up and go through an all-around feminization regimen besides the military training that they receive. Besides having a source of income, many men join the military so as to gain a profound sense of importance as protectors of the nation and their families which includes their wives. For such men, their vision of a feminine home that needs to be protected is deeply disturbed by presence of women in the military. They are greatly disillusioned when women come out to be able to protect themselves by being in the military and hence the role of these men as protectors become obsolete. Some men resist induction of women into the military because they feel the organization and rituals of the military induction process are devalued when a girl can also successfully go through them. Hence, as much as women have made major gains in the military over the years there is still a noteworthy gender gap in the roles of the different genders.
Racial discrimination can be defined as segregation of the society based on the skin color and perceive place of origin of the immigrant. Racism within the military has been a reality for a long time. The military was officially segregated until 1948 but even after this the legacy of racism is still strong. In a novel research, it was established that 75 percent of all people of color that are in the military complained that they were experiencing racially offensive behavior. Less than fifty percent felt that their complaints of racially offensive behavior were thoroughly investigated. There also exists a view among the Latinos and African Americans of being given inferior assignments, and them being evaluated based on their race. Years of oppression has ensured that most people of color lack access to financial resource. The children of the rich who are mainly from the white community go to elite schools from where they get to lucrative job positions. On the other hand, children of the middle class find themselves with less choice after high school and are hence lured to the military. Immigrants too are lured to the military through the offer of visas. Most people of color tend to work all their military life in the position of service men despite making up a sizable position in the military. The upward mobility of people of color compared to the whites is slow with relative people of color not reaching their optimum potential and most remaining at the service men level. White supremacists groups have been known to percolate through the ranks of the military. The recent examples are those of Wade Page a former U.S.Army soldier who opened fire at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin murdering six people and causing critical injury to three then going ahead to kill himself. The exact number of white extremist that have served in the military is not known but a report done in 2008 that was commissioned by the Justice Department found that 50% of all right-wing hardliners in the United States had undergone some military training. The latest incidences that pointed to racism are those of tweets that had been posted on the military twitter account that tended to depict people of Chinese origin to be weak and hence not suitable for some tasks in the military.
The military has always been believed to be a unit that enjoys religious freedom. The men and women of the Armed Forces are at liberty to share their beliefs and faith with others as long as coercion is not used. For this reason, the clergy of the various religions and denominations are made available to the militants so as to meet their religious needs. Of late there has been the view that there has been a silent promotion of Pentecostal practices among the military personnel. In 2005 there were reports showing that at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs promoted evangelical Christian beliefs and seemed to be insensitive towards and tended to harass cadets that seemed to practice a different religion or those who were atheists. An increased intolerance to people that are non-Pentecostal has been seen to be on the rise in the last five years. The New York Times alone has in the recent past published seven articles that show the coercive proselytization of the members of the military. The military personnel have been harassed and experienced some discrimination in the military academies based on their faiths. An example is that of unethical appearance of seven uniformed military official who hold high ranks in a video that was promoting The Christian Embassy. This is a group that evangelizes the military leaders. This sends a silent message that preferably evangelical faiths are preferred within the U.S. Army. After the bombing of September 11th in New York, there has been a phobia of Muslims within the military. This issue has been further exaggerated by the increase in terrorism acts in the recent posts. In the military academies as much as cadets that profess the Islam faith are still being admitted the fellow cadets and the general public tends to view them with suspicion as they doubt their loyalty as to whether it stands with the nation or sympathizing with the terrorists. Another incident of religious intolerance was shown when the U.S.Army denied a Hofstra University student who was a Sikh from enlisting in an on-campus military program unless he accepted to stick to the grooming policies of the Army that tended to go against his religious beliefs. He was required to shave his beard, remove his turban and cut his hair and all these went against his religious practice.