Gender is a Social Construct and 2+2=5

Bringing 1984 into 2023

First of All…

You may have heard someone saying “gender is a social construct.” Usually, it has a “First of all,” in front of it, as some sort of preparation for the gravity with which this declaration should be received. That itself lends credence to the parallels between what Winston in 1984 went through with two plus two equals five and the manner in which this pseudo-truth about gender is declared.

If you’ve never read 1984 or it’s been a few decades, the pinnacle of what Big Brother did to people was dramatically displayed by breaking the main character’s mind. Winston was tortured into saying and then actually believing that two plus two equals five as opposed to four.

But just like two plus to two being equal to five, nobody actually believes that gender is a social construct. Winston only truly believed it after he was tortured into belief. Like two plus to equals five, stating that gender is a social construct is a means for someone to declare their political position with relation to an ideology. It’s a means to plant a flag in the ground and declare with whom they stand.

If challenged, most people will back down a bit and admit that of course there are biological truths that have social implications. But if they can admit that, and if they know that, then why start out by stating an obvious falsehood? Why not just say that gender and its expression are influenced by culture? Mostly it’s because they are simply parroting an ideological statement without being precise in their speech. It’s truly more of a slogan than a statement of fact.

But why gender? And why two plus two?

It’s because the declaration must be foundational. It must serve as a starting point that frames everything that grows from it.

If Winston was forced to declare that E does not equal MC², then he could easily do that. Most of us don’t truly know what it means and it’s a higher level abstract concept. It would be easy to live with that. It wouldn’t affect much of anything in our brains.

But being beaten into submission until you say and believe that two plus two equals five creates a whole chain of cognitive problems. Big Brother…