Hear me out. There’s nothing innate to an object that makes it “food”. It’s an attribute we give to certain things that meet certain qualities, i.e. being digestible, nutritious, perhaps tasty or satisfying in some way, etc. We could really ingest just about anything, but we call the stuff that’s edible “food”. Does that make it a social construct?
No, it’s not a social construct, it’s a description of things that are consumed for nutritional value. Sure, “food” is a social construct in that it’s an English Language word used to describe said items, but every single life form consumes some form of food, regardless of said life form’s society (or more often lack thereof).
Also there are literally objective things innate to certain objects that make them food so you’re entire initial premise is idiotic.
“carrying and birthing my child was not a social construct” vibes
sure but calling it a certain name based on those qualities is…
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Do you genuinely think that it is stupid to be wondering about this? That’s a really sad way to live. Anyway, I hope you have a good day today, despite how mean you’ve been to me. Maybe it made you feel better to be mean to me, but I know from experience that you’re usually mean when things aren’t going well. Good luck.
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I’m just waiting for some dipshit to wander in here and talk about how we need to “examine the relationship” with food and start calling it something like “people fuel” or some other bullshit term.
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I have never once at any point inserted a “should” into this conversation, besides maybe like “you shouldn’t be a dick”.
is that what’s so scary to you? that thinking leads to shoulding? take your fear out elsewhere please
Did you wave goodbye to the handle as you flew off of it?
This is one of those gender / sex dealies.
Food is not a social construct. But meals are.
ruh roh what if sex is also a social construct
nah not going down that rabbit hole
(wonder why we chose to group biological factors XYZ to determine those classes instead of classes based on ABC tho…)
sex is also a social construct
Can we also at least stick our head down that rabbit hole? Because holy shit yes that nebulous hybrid of social convention and biological (on a species level) necessity is also where food fits…
(I am referring of course to sex the act, not the synonym for gender…)
No.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk!
Give me the link to your ted talk please
This isn’t a shower thought, it’s embarrassing to even read.
im not ashamed. why would I be ashamed of thinking about things in unfamiliar ways and trying to see what’s behind it?
you should be ashamed for being so condescending. maybe you’re so embarrassed because you identify way too strongly with your thoughts that you can’t tolerate having a bizarre one.
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This constant trend in this stupid community to just post “Is [insert word] not what it is defined to mean??” As some mind blowing idea is exhaustingly boring.
I’ve been fairly polite in this thread but I’m tempted to call you stupid. I won’t, because I get you, but you’re missing the point.
Is [insert word] not what it is defined to mean??
That is NOT what I am saying, you stupid-head. Is that what you think social construct means? Read my other replies and get back to me. Explain to me why your comment is wrong and a gross misinterpretation of what I’m saying.
I’ve been fairly polite in this thread but I’m tempted to call you stupid. I won’t
That’s a lot of words to just call someone stupid and try to get away with it
wow you figured it out! you even figured it out before you got to the part where i directly call them a stupid-head too
Food is a social construct. For a social construct to exist you have to have a social category with shifting goalposts based on different context and cultural factors that are not rigidly defined. Like “Fat” - what is considered fat for a person is based on context. A supermodel is fat for being 5’9 and 145lbs but we would call a constructiom labourer skinny as fuck at those same dimensions. Each culture constructs it’s own version of what defines “fat” which is different and distinct from something than the medical guidelines for obesity or an expectation of reasonable health. “Fat” is in the eye of the beholder and represents overlapping cultural circles with varying degrees of consideration of what is excluded from the category.
The scientific concept of nutritional substance is not how we always define “food”. Culturally people contest what is considered food vs non food items based on cultural factors. Like eating mice for instance does have nutritional value but there are a lot of people who would contest them as being a valid food item even if they were raised in clean conditions due to cultural adversions. “That isn’t food.” has been uttered in all sincerity by people encountering strange delicacies that their culture has taboos against eating beliving it dangerous, unpleasant or just categorically not something intended to be eaten. Thus “food” would be in part a sociologically constructed category.
I knew the Driveby Haiku would understand. Nice.
Thank you for responding.
Maybe all language, words, and sentences, and the meaning behind everything we share are just social constructs?
go on 😊
I have to agree, considering how often people meeting new people of different cultures have been known to ask “is it food?” When presented with new things that may or may not be food.
There’s plenty of edible things we don’t actually use as food, too. Paste is edible and just made from flour and water. But it’s not food. There are cultures that eat bugs, and those that do not may not consider bugs food. What is and isn’t food is somewhat determined by culture.
that’s a beautiful thing! so… mind or culture
Food is a category made up of human edible materials, usually providing nutritional benefits. There is a larger social construct AROUND food. Like a burrito is a construct, it being a product of Mexican culture is a construct, it being transformed into a “Cali Burrito”, people who have burrito bumper stickers, the type of place you think of when someone says “a burrito joint”. All social constructs. But food itself, I wouldn’t consider a social construct, no.
Food? No. Cuisine? Perhaps.
Food is a non-toxic, organic substance that provides nutrition in the form of carbohydrates, protein, fibre, fats/oils, and/or vitamins and minerals. Sure there are some edge cases which you can argue the point in, such as a lump of rock salt maybe, but for the most part it is something which provides sustenance. Sure you could eat mud or plaster and it won’t kill you, but it won’t help keep you alive either, so its not food.
Sure there are some edge cases which you can argue the point in
isn’t that kind of a big deal, though? either it’s not socially constructed and you can’t argue in edge cases, or it is socially constructed and you can. as for what you do with this conclusion, it really doesn’t matter…
until you start discussing social constructs with someone and you have to remember that even the concept of food is socially constructed. which should really comfort us and remind us that this means something can be a social construct and still real, meaningful, and important, but instead it seems everyone wants to freak out at the concept! even in this thread.
I agree that the pile-on wasn’t necessary, people tend to just give their kneejerk response and then move on. Having said that, you probably could have explained your case a bit better too in the original post.
explain better? I don’t wanna lecture. I wanna talk. we figure it out together. that’s what we do together, as a community, instead of telling people off, like here! definitely got some easy new names for my block list though.
Imagine being trans though, holy shit, I don’t envy having to do this regularly…
On a scale of 1 to munchies, how high are you right now?
Go ahead, you can eat the mold off your walls, what’s the worst that could happen?
Maybe this is why people are freaking out. “If food is a social construct, then I’ll start eating mold!” Yeah, and I’m the one who’s stupid and crazy. I’m actually really astounded by how much people are reading their own bullshit into this.
Our naming and classification of things is all socially constructed. So yes, our categorization of edible things as food is a social construct, but our physical need to fuel our bodies with something digestible is not. But also, using it that way makes existence a social construct, so it depends on how rigid you want to be.
Our naming and classification of things is all socially constructed. So yes, our categorization of edible things as food is a social construct, but our physical need to fuel our bodies with something digestible is not.
i love you
But also, using it that way makes existence a social construct, so it depends on how rigid you want to be.
Explain. (warning lemmings may get mad)
We define what existence is. We have all collectively agreed that being here in the perceptible world means that something exists. We could choose to include the imaginary in its definition and then would be able to say that dragons and wizards exist. We could also choose to say something has to be present in 4 dimensions to exist, in which case we’d not be able to say that anything exists.
A social construct is simply an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society which includes the dictionary itself. I’d also say that these definitions are often useful at allowing us to communicate and cooperate with one another, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t make up the idea.
Excellent! So what’s underneath all this, then? Can something be both real and a social construct? What things aren’t social constructs?
Thing you pick up in nature (a fruit, for example, like apple) still called food.
But i like your idea, perhaps we rephrase it. What about call it “dishes” or “cuisines”
=> is “cuisines” a social construct.
But then how can I torment a teenager who says “We don’t have any food in the house!” by reminding them that food is a social construct? They’re never gonna end up saying “We don’t have any cuisines in the house!”
Dude your mom’s a social construct
