Artificial Constructs (Shoutout!)

It was two Fridays ago that the group of us celebrated Ashley's birthday in a surprise party at Jalean's house (if you're reading this, Jalean, you're a great host!). Among the presents Ashley received, which included a kickass Sandman graphic novel set, was, I think, a bottle of Bulgari men's perfume mistakenly gifted by Ivy and Sheryl. Dutifully and perhaps anally some might have felt, I immediately remarked that the ideas of "men's perfume" and "women's perfume" were nothing more than artificial constructs. I mean, back when perfume/cologne was discovered/invented, the inventor probably randomly assigned the qualities of "more alcohol-based" to men's perfume and "more oil-based" to women's perfume (I googled the difference) and that was that. It could easily had been the reverse, and we would all be thinking the opposite. If one likes the fragrance, one likes the fragrance. Simple as that, no?

Of course, I'm not saying, "fuck constructs". They do exist for a purpose. They help us in providing meaning and are important tools for us to engage with each other and with the world. I just think that one should be more aware of all the constructs around us, to have our consciousness raised about them, as Dawkins puts it (He makes a great point: There are no Muslim/Christian/Buddhist/insert religion children, only children of Muslim/Christian/Buddhist/insert religion parents). And know that sometimes, concepts and beliefs of right or wrong or what's normal and what's not are as arbitrary and non-axiomatic as constructs like "Asian Values" (a meaningless phrase the government and right-wing/neo-con ST forum writers love to throw out to excuse any of their actions with regards to censorship/gay rights/any other social/political progress issue) or "Legal Drinking/Voting/Smoking Age" or, hell, even race.

Another example I came across: Apparently, in Australia, they sell reversed maps which show Antarctica on the top, and the North Pole at the bottom. It's kinda a way to remind people that the common perception of the North Pole being 'up' and Antartica being 'down' is entirely a social construct. There isn't an Up or Down side in the universe, after all.

Up/down/left/right, I guess the one thing that never changes is that we can never find Singapore on the map.