Social construct
A social construct is a concept or category that has socially and culturally mediated meaning. In other words, social constructs are concepts that generate their meaning through social and cultural worldviews.1
Many things that can, at a glance, seem objective, fall under this category. Within a specific time frame and culture, the meaning of a particular social construct may seem relatively static. For example, what is fashionable, and indeed what is beautiful has changed over time, and varies by culture and location. Beauty is therefore not objective, but socially constructed in a specific time period1.
Indeed, race is also a social construct. While there are biological features that factor into the construct such as skin pigmentation and other biological markers, the cultural associations we ascribe to race make it a social construct1. This is an important point to make, because social constructs often relate to things in the material world, whether that be skin color (in case of race) or the size and shape of a person’s body (in case of ideal beauty.) The fact that social constructs are, well, socially constructed does not mean that they are wholly abstract concepts that don’t relate to the material world.
In this same way, gender is also a social construct. For more information about this, see the gender and sex definition pages.