identity

Rather, the statement “identity is socially constructed” trades on the implicit and unarticulated double sense of “identity” in present usage. It means at once that social categories are socially constructed and something like “peoples’ sense of themselves as distinct individuals is socially constructed.” In part, what gives such statements their force, interest, and subversive appeal is the notion that a social process beyond the individual’s control crucially shapes something that the individual may understand as deeply personal.