Social Construction Of Reality-

Running head: SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY 1

Social Construction of Reality: A Case Study of Teenagers in the U.K and the U.S

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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY 2

Abstract

Social construction of reality is a theory which establishes that a major part of human beings’

lives exists due to social and interpersonal influences. Social construction of reality focuses on

social influences both at a personal and at a communal level. Using the case study of the rise in

cosmetic surgeries among teenagers in the United States and the United Kingdom, it is possible

to illuminate the concept of social constructionism as well as investigate the various social

influences within a particular culture or a society. The growing need among teenagers to undergo

cosmetic surgeries in order to conform to what is regarded as the ideal feminine body in their

respective cultures and society is an example of social constructionism with regards to the

feminine body. By virtue of interactions and with the aid of various agents of socialization, girls

at a tender age are already feeling the pressure to have the ideal socially constructed body. Using

the case of teenagers and cosmetic surgeries, it is possible to examine how an understanding that

is jointly constructed is developed in an individual which then forms the basis of common

assumptions.

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Social Construction of Reality: A Case Study of Teenagers in the U.S. and the U.K.

Social construction of reality refers to the social process where an individual or

individuals, through interactions and actions, end up creating a reality that is owned and

experienced together subjectively. Essentially, social construction of reality is a theory which

establishes that the way an individual presents themselves to other people is shaped both by the

way they interact with other people as well as their own life experiences (Darisman, Hilman &

Homan, 2016). For every individual, reality differs. No reality that is universally true.

Additionally, reality is not an objective concept that is imposed on human beings; rather it is

human beings who create reality. What an individual considers to be true or real is dependent on

individual ideas, circumstances, and knowledge. Every person within a particular society has

different perceptions when it comes to what is real and what is not. Since reality is perceived

differently by different individuals, people come to varied decisions on how they view another

person or a particular circumstance and end up acting accordingly.

Human beings are big on impression management. Impression management is the

constant desire to manipulate other people’s impressions. Various mechanisms are used in this

regard. However, the one mechanism or sign vehicle that people use to present themselves is

appearance. An individual’s appearance speaks volumes about who he or she is. First

impressions are almost always based exclusively on a person’s appearance. Appearance here

takes into account clothing, physical stature, race, stereotypes and the human body in general.

Different realities have particularly been constructed by different societies and cultures when it

comes to the issue of the human body and what is to be considered the ideal appearance for a

person.

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Therefore, social construction of reality can best be illuminated by the idea of what

people in various societies consider to be an ideal body, in particular, the ideal feminine body.

This is because what people regard as the ideal body is a socially constructed knowledge that is

brought about by virtue of interactions (Galbin, 2014). Women’s bodies are a lot more exposed

to scrutiny as opposed to men’s bodies. Men are subject to the pressures as well but more subtly

as compared women. As a socially constructed reality, an ideal body form is grounded in

particular cultures, language, practices, and behaviors. For example, an individual may question:

What is the real reality about the female body? Is being slim, for instance, the best body form or

is it not? According to sociologists, what an individual perceives to be ‘real’ is real in its

consequences. This means that a person’s behavior is not dependent on objective reality but

rather it is dependent on the individual’s subjective interpretation of a particular circumstance or

situation.

Case Study: Cosmetic Surgeries and Teenagers

There is an increasing concern of teenagers going for cosmetic surgery both in the U.K

and in the U.S. In an article on the guardian, Martison speaks of an unregulated industry that is

allowing teenagers access to cosmetic surgery. Young women in their teenage years in both

countries feel insecure about their bodies. This particular insecurity is fuelled by the societies

they live and more so by the media among other factors. The article uses the story of eighteen-

year-old Ella from Southampton who has wanted a cosmetic surgery since she was 11 years old.

Despite being offered good advice by her therapist to seek counseling for her low self-esteem

issues before considering cosmetic surgery, Ella has maintained that the surgery will fix a large

part of her life and she will not be ashamed anymore.

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In the U.K and the U.S, as is particularized by the article, young women are increasingly

seeking cosmetic surgeries in order to address confidence issues with regards to the body

(Martison, 2017). This growing need has, in turn, fueled cosmetic surgeries. Despite the non-

existence of hard evidence, anecdotal evidence has pointed out that some unregulated businesses

in the industry are offering cosmetic surgeries to teenagers. While the demand for cosmetic

surgery is not new among people in the U.S and the U.K, it is alarming that more and more

teenagers are considering surgery so as to have what they and their cultures consider as the ideal

feminine body. Teenagers today have come of age in societies and cultures that is more and more

accustomed to the enhancement of bodies through surgery. Blanket bans on procedures for girls

under the age of 18 have had to be instituted in facilities that offer cosmetic surgeries mainly

because very young girls are showing up to the institutions some in the company of their parents.

Tougher controls are also being put on who should offer the procedures and how they

should go about their marketing processes. This follows the realization that was made by NHS

where girls aged seven to sixteen are these days already feeling the pressure to look a certain

way, specifically the with regards to celebrities (Martison, 2017). In the two cultures, cosmetic

surgery has been normalized in the pursuit of the ideal body. While restrictive practices may be

considered counterproductive to the economy given the fact that cosmetic surgeries are on the

rise, it is important that patient safety is put at the forefront. Even with restrictive practices in

place, grey areas still exist. For instance, the possibility of anyone regardless of their age to order

dermal fillers online points to lack of regulation in the industry.

Campaigners against teenagers undergoing cosmetic surgeries have pointed to the media

as the main source of unrealistic body types. Various campaigners have gone on to point out that

girls and young women are the most affected by expectations of what a woman’s body should

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look like. In the recent years, there has been a lot more of pressure that goes along with what is

considered the best or suitable body image.

From the case of Ella and ever-rising cosmetic surgeries among relatively young women

in the United Kingdom and the United States, it is evident that while the nature of the body is

universal, the body is a cultural artifact. A person’s body can be a result of social modification,

and it not only expresses culture but also represents the individual. A woman’s body is

considered as an ideal feminine body in social relations by the perceptions of other people.

Today, female adolescents seem to precipitate the idea of a particular type of body during their

puberty. The desire to have a particular type of body is in this day and age is not only socially

constructed by the society but it is also socially constructed by the effects of other factors such as

media, particularly social media, celebrities and other successful women and people in general.

The current societal norms and pressures advocate women to conform to an importance of body

either through cosmetic surgery or extreme dieting. A particular body type is, therefore,

associated with being attractive. For the teenagers and adolescents who consider either being thin

or getting surgery to enhance a part of their body, the concept of normal growth has been altered.

What should be considered as normal growth is associated with ugliness, laziness or failure.

Normally, the way an individual’s body looks is dictated by anatomy and natural

physiology. However, what is considered to be the best body type is usually a product of the

society’s ideologies, practices and stratification system (Shilling, 2014). That is, the reality of

what is to be considered an ideal type of body varies from one person to the other based on the

society they live in and their respective culture. In this regard, person’s body can be interpreted

in many different ways. First, it is a system of meanings and representations. Also, the body can

also be thought of as a process of digressive formation as a body is constructed by discourses and

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may function as both a text and a locus of social control. Thirdly, the body can be symbolic as it

can be a representation of a particular culture.

In contemporary America, for example, a person’s thinness is associated with high social

status and is thought to reflect on an individual’s moral virtue. Drawing on this, the various

social and moral meanings of varied body sizes have for a long time informed how people eat as

well as how people of different sizes are treated in the contemporary American society. As such,

among a majority of Americans, a slim body is considered more attractive than a heavier body,

especially in women. In order to comply with what is their reality, women got to great lengths in

order to ensure that their bodies comply with the acceptable view of a woman. In social

construction feminism, gender is singled out as the most significant factor when it comes to

individuals transforming their bodies so that they can fit into what is considered an ideal body

within their culture. Meaning that from a feminist point of view, the ideal body is socially

constructed both in the material as well as the cultural world (Kivisto, 2012). Saying that bodies

are socially constructed does not negate the fact that bodies are a material reality and that they

are universal. However, it points to the fact that if a person is asked what they consider to be a

beautiful body, judgments will vary depending on a number of factors such as culture, ethnicity,

place as well as economic status.

Through social construction dynamics, gender appears to be a main factor in the

transformation of bodies from what is a physical body to a social body. Women in the Western

cultures take part in a number of practices in order to change their appearance so that they can fit

into the ideals of feminine beauty in their culture. Such changes, which include a variety of

cosmetic surgeries, are increasingly being considered by individuals because a person’s body and

general appearance is more than just aesthetics. It is mainly about moral judgments (Kivisto,

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2012). If a woman’s body contradicts social conventions either in terms of weight and shape then

that person is viewed as an individual who either lacks control or respect for their body.

On the contrary, people whose bodies conform to the valued conventionalities are not

only thought of highly by others but are also held up for others to emulate. Therefore, through

judgments, rewards and various forms of punishments offered to people of varied body forms,

members of various social groups have persuaded and coerced each other into constructing

bodies that are socially acceptable. A person’s body is considered the ultimate way of

communicating personal identity. This takes into account the clothes that a person chooses to

wear as well as any other self-decorations such as tattoos and piercings and cosmetic surgery.

The extent to which women have to go in terms of clothing and self-decoration in order to be

beautiful and attractive is sometimes questionable.

Female members of any society always tend to construct their bodies in a manner that is

consistent with both their gender status as well as the accepted notions of femininity in the

society. The society, therefore, plays a huge part when it comes to interactions among people,

personal development as well as the perception of one’s body as a reflection of self-worth. The

society, with regards to the human body, can be thought of as a subjective reality (Berger &

Luckmann, n.d). This takes into account the process of internalization which involves two

concepts of socialization which are primary and secondary socialization as well as maintaining

and transforming subjective reality.

Social construction of reality is a major part of socialization. It is through the process of

socialization that one learns what they consider to be real, true or good. When a person is born

into a particular society, he or she has a predisposed to sociality and he or she becomes part of

that society. In the case of girls and young women, as members of a particular society, they begin

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to apprehend the world (Berger & Luckmann, n.d). They take over other people’s objectified

subjective behavior and their meanings of common situations and define them reciprocally. For

these women and young girls, their objective reality is people’s subjective behavior towards

weight and general shape of the feminine body. This is known as primary socialization, and it is

the most important form of socialization. It is where an individual develops through the

mediation of others.

For every individual, primary socialization is different and it takes into account emotional

learning. The process of primary socialization is what leads to the development of identity

among people in a particular society and is complete when a person has all the characteristic of

the society to which they belong. In secondary socialization, reality and society identity are

combined (Berger & Luckmann, n.d). In this process, detachment from identity and emotionality

are significant. Secondary socialization involves the induction of a person who is already social

into other areas of the objective world of their society.

If applied to the case of teenagers, and their idea of what an ideal body is, the teenagers

have from a young age internalized the world and their society in particular. To that extent, they

are able to identify who they are and they have acquired a subjectively coherent and plausible

identity. Once an individual is able to identify with a generality of others or a society, he or she

is then able to identify themselves better. Therefore, the process of internalization involves the

subjective crystallization of three things which are the society, an individual’s identity and reality

(Berger & Luckmann, n.d). Teenagers today do this with the help of various agents of

socialization. At the top of the list of agents of socialization is social media. Other agents include

family members, mentors, peers and other members of the society.

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The mass media and social media both play a major role in the social construction of

reality both in the U.K and in the U.S as well as in the world as a whole. Media as an industry

has gone a long way in promoting what aesthetically is considered to be the socially acceptable

feminine body. This has led a lot of women to be dissatisfied with their bodies and as a

consequence, the willingness to have cosmetic surgeries in these modern times has increased

immensely. Because of the ideologies that are depicted in the media as the preferred ideologies,

women and girls are dieting and having their bodies enhanced in order to fit ideals that are

increasingly being conceptualized in various forms of media such as magazines and programmes

on the television.

The media has over the years, become a platform where cultural norms and strong views

on what an ideal body should look like. As a result, knowingly or unknowingly, individuals

validate and perpetuate those ideas. Therefore, it follows that the media is trying to perpetuate

the reality of what an ideal body should look like to women and girls. The society through the

media constantly gives people a number of reference points which in turn shape varied

perceptions whether those perceptions are positive or negative. Apart from the ideals embedded

in the current age and the media, prejudice of size and shape within affluent cultures and the

intolerance of body diversity are indications of individuals who have been conditioned to view

certain body forms as better than others. Family and friends also have a major impact on body

image development because of shared experiences, values and beliefs.

In summary, in a bid to get and maintain the socially constructed body, there is an

increase in cosmetic surgeries today. This is not exclusive to women as the social construction of

masculinity also exists. In the 21

century, having the ideal body is associated with aesthetic

pride among both men and women. Women are, however, a lot more pressured to fit into the

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mould of the constructed ideals concerning the human body. The theory of social

constructionism of reality is best illuminated by the concept of the ideal body in the United

States and in the United Kingdom. The ideal beauty is almost similar in the two cultures, and the

cultural standards are established in the media. Young women and adolescents are the most

affected demographic. While certain standards of beauty and ideal body are universal and cut

across various demographics, people from different cultures and societies have different issues

and concerns with regards to the human body and the feminine body in particular.

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References

Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (n.d.). The Social Construction of Reality.

Retrieved December 15, 2017, from http://perflensburg.se/Berger%20social-

construction-of-reality.pdf

Darisman A., Hilman D., & Homan, D. K. (2016). Social Construction Theory of

Reality: A Case of Anti Anorexia Campaign Poster. Retrieved from

http://research-

dashboard.binus.ac.id/uploads/paper/document/publication/Proceeding/Humani

ora/Vol.%207%20No.%202%20April%202016/03_JJA_DKV_Aris_ok.pdf

Galbin A. (2014). Introduction to Social Constructionism. Social Research Reports, 26,

82-92.

Kivisto, P. (2012). Illuminating social life: Classical and contemporary theory

revisited. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Martinson, J. (2017, November 25). Cosmetic Surgery and Teenagers? a Disaster

Waiting to Happen. Retrieved December 15, 2017, from

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/apr/28/cosmetic-

surgery-and-teenagers-disaster-waiting-to-happen

Shilling, C. (2014). The Body and Social Theory. London: SAGE Publications.

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