Um, wow, you really don’t understand much about this subject, or the definition of what a social construct is do you? So, for instance, this is you:

“If challenged, most people will back down a bit and admit that of course there are biological truths that have social implications. But if they can admit that, and if they know that, then why start out by stating an obvious falsehood? Why not just say that gender and its expression are influenced by culture?”

1. Biology relates to sex. Gender is not the same as sex. Gender is not biological, and its expression has varied over time, across cultures, and throughout history. Traits that are now considered male or female gender norms are not encoded in DNA and have not always tracked in nearly as binary a fashion as they do now. Would you like to guess why? (Hint: it’s because gender is a social, not biological, construct).

2. When you ask “why not just say that gender and its expression are influenced by culture” — as if to suggest that you could get behind that obvious truism, but can’t accept the idea that gender is a social construct — you are ignoring that your re-phrasing is pretty much the thumbnail definition of what a social construct is. In other words, what you have just said, in effect, is “Why say gender is a social construct when you could just say gender is a social construct?”

Indeed. Pure genius.