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.
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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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.
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.
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.
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
I've always been warm with my socks. Thank you
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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.
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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!
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Serious question:
I moved to an area that should be 5 degrees cooler on average than home, but this summer is killing me and I have a lot of stuff outside to work on, plus I recently got back on my meds, which all have heat sensitivity advisories so, yeah... probably not helping, but bipolar meds are generally fairly necessarily, unfortunately.
So, the question: Where could I purchase a legit Bedouin robe for the cooling effects; preferably online as I don't think they have too many robe shops in central AR?
I'm not afraid to look like a weirdo in my own back yard.
Hell the neighbors on one side a retired potheads with strong hippy vibes, the other side is a young family of musicians.... the dude rocks a waxed handle bar mustache regularly so I really don't care for his opinions on style. To each their own.
Thawb or dishdasha is the thing you're looking for, and easily available online. My friend brings me back some from Kuwait: the current batch is from https://aljazzerakw.com/ Truly the world's comfiest clothing
Having a shit is a natural process, however doing it privately in toilets is nowadays somewhat of a social construct.
So, should I stop using the toilet and use your bed instead?
(Edit: I didn't think I needed to add an /s but...)
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Something being a social construct doesn't mean it's not real, or ignoring it won't negatively affect you.
Laws, money, etc. are all social constructs.
And, while it's good to challenge dumb social constructs, you should pick your battles. Nobody can fight all dumb social constructs at the same time. Is wearing socks really where you want to focus your energy?
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