Are We Really Born This Way

During our class discussion on Tuesday November 10th we talked about the idea of being “born this way” versus social constructs.  I thought this conversation was really interesting and it got me thinking a lot about the subject.  When we first started the conversation I was thinking that people really are born the way that they are and I believed in that idea.  People are able to choose who they want to be but it is more complicated than that.  I thought that the Lady Gaga song that started all of this was really powerful to get people thinking of this idea instead of going along with society.  Powerful in a sense to get people to not be afraid of who they really are.   

However, after thinking about what everyone else had to say I have to agree with some of the ideas that were discussed.  I think that social constructs are always going to be around no matter what it just depends on how people deal with them.  Society clearly has a huge impact on how people act.  Therefore from the time that you are born society will affect the way that you identify with yourself, making it really difficult to go against social constructs.  This idea of being “born this way” challenges the social constructs but no one wants to face going against it.  When your born you don't know the person that your going to become and by growing up our society tries to do that for you.  No one knows exactly who they are and everything about themselves when they are born.  Through the culture that a person grows up in shapes how they figure out who they are.  From the time we are born people have traditionally brought up boys to be masculine playing with trucks and girls to be feminine playing with barbies and dolls, making it harder to go against how we are brought up.  It also makes it harder for people to identify themselves when labels are changing.  It is different now than it was years ago and it can be confusing for people who identify with one name and then it changes.     

I also found it interesting how this discussion turned into a conversation on what is and what isn't normal.  This is something that our society tries to determine for us as well.  I think everyone has their own idea of what normal is.   

In the end I don’t think it is as easy as what’s right and what’s wrong.  Society will always control us but it’s how much we let it control who we become.  There are many different things to think about with this discussion and I think it will only continue to be unknown.