Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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-49

Is "food" a social construct? (lemm.ee)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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?

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

This is one of those gender vs sex dealies.

Food is not a social construct. But meals are.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

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...)

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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