C3 Coms

Body politics

the practices and policies through which power is marked, regulated, and negotiated on and through the body.

Social construct

an idea or phenomenon created by people in a society through communication; it exists only because people agree it exists.

Social construction

the process by which people collectively create meaning, reality, and conventions through communication.

Semiotics

the study of signs and how meaning is socially constructed within cultural systems.

Signs

units composed of a signifier and signified that produce meaning through difference.

Signifier

the physical form of a sign (body, object, word, image, action).

Signified

the idea or concept represented by the signifier.

Normative social construction of gender

the use of physical differences to construct two mutually exclusive gender categories and assign meanings through communication.

Transgender

people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth; those who cross cultural boundaries defining gender.

Genderqueer

people who live across, between, or outside the socially constructed two‑gender system.

Gender‑nonconforming

people whose gender expression does not align with socially constructed norms.

Nonbinary

identities that exist outside the male/female binary.

Intersectionality

an approach to understanding how race, gender, class, sexuality, and other categories intersect to shape experiences and oppression.

Social location

the position a person occupies within intersecting systems of power (race, class, gender, etc.).

Positionality

how one's social location shapes perspective, experience, and access to power.

Standpoint theory

the idea that knowledge is shaped by social position and lived experience within systems of power.

Constructing the "Other"

the process of marking differences on the body and assigning hierarchical meaning to justify domination.

White supremacy

a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of people of color by people of European descent.

Hierarchy of difference

a classification system that ranks groups as superior or inferior based on socially constructed racial categories.

Silenced histories

hidden or omitted accounts of history that are suppressed from official narratives.

Settler colonialism

a structure in which indigenous peoples are replaced by settlers who claim land, resources, and power indefinitely.

Racial naturalism

the belief that White people are biologically superior to non‑White people.

Racial historicism

the ideology that shifts racial difference from biology to culture, claiming non‑White groups lack "development."

Whiteness

a location of structural advantage, a standpoint, and a set of norms that invisibly elevate White cultural standards.

Location of structural advantage

the systemic political, economic, and social benefits conferred to White people.

Standpoint (Whiteness)

the dominant perspective shaped by experiences of privilege within institutions.

Core symbols / norms / labels

the values and practices of White culture that are treated as universal standards.