Sociological Notes
No, You Aren’t Getting Rid of Social Norms with “Diversity and Inclusion”
You are merely creating new ones
Many people in the world would like to get rid of stupid, arbitrary norms. That’s certainly the impression I get whenever I head onto Twitter.
Why does it go against social norms for a man to wear a dress? They are artifacts of an age bygone, of a less enlightened era. Our society is more civilized, more understanding.
Right?
Everyone is an individual. We are all equal. And we should all be able to do whatever we want, as long as no one gets hurt.
“Let’s get rid of these social norms!”
Hold on — it doesn’t work that way.
The Tenacity of Social Norms
Social norms transcend individuals.
Social norms are solidified communicative structures. They penetrate us and we feel their force.
Even if we disagree with them, we know they are there.
Don’t believe me?
Don’t like wearing suits to the office? Don’t like wearing neckties to work? Sure, ditch the suits all you want.
But the very fact that people are taking to LinkedIn to defend their wardrobe choices in light of an ideal standard (real or imagined) proves this point.
Dress codes — even if they have relaxed — exist.
If the invitation to a wedding asked for a suit, would you turn up in beachwear?
Norms Cannot Be Deleted, Only Overridden or Overwritten
It’s the same for so-called arbitrary gendered social norms. Let’s take the example of men wearing dresses and skirts.
Why can’t men wear them?
Some people would argue that it’s an arbitrary rule that has no place in the 21st century!
“We should get rid of this social norm!”
To that, I say, “yes, it’s arbitrary.”
But that doesn’t mean that we can get rid of norms just like that. Unlike your money in the bank, norms don’t just magically vanish.
If a man wears a dress down the street, people are going to stare at him.
Don’t believe me? You can try it for yourself.
You would be engaging in what sociologists call a “breaching experiment,” popularized by American sociologist Harold Garfinkel in the 1960s.
The objective of breaching experiments is to discover the subconscious social norms and the force of conformity by acting in a socially inappropriate way.
You cannot erase a norm just by pressing the “delete” button.
You can only override norms with other norms.
For example, it would be appropriate for a man to wear a gown at the hospital. The dress code within a hospital — an institution which has its own norms — overrides the general social norm.
But if this behavior is attempted on a large scale, in “regular society,” new norms may emerge to justify it.
If the movement generates enough power, it might be possible to overwrite older norms.
Woke Ideology as a Movement to Install New Norms
Today, what some commentators refer to as “woke ideology” has made itself felt all around the world.
Much of this power comes from the leverage of social media. It’s become very, very easy for people to get canceled for going against the emerging norm of diversity and inclusion.
Today, all of us need to be extremely careful about what you say on social media.
We have become very careful not to prescribe social norms.
This is the story society tells itself: People come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, genders, preferences, and predispositions, and we want to honor diversity — and that is what we believe.
Or rather, it is what we must believe.
So, we think that gendered norms have vanished.
No, that’s not the case.
Gendered norms are still there, but now there is another norm — respect for diversity.
If one day, it becomes appropriate for men to wear dresses, it is not because this norm has vanished — it is because another norm has superseded it.
But I do not think that the social change we are witnessing is a radical break that we have been having for the past couple of centuries.
We Are Still Haunted by the Enlightenment
In modern society, norms have gradually shifted from those of exclusion,
- hierarchical (for example, status-based ones),
- segmented (men vs women)
to norms of inclusion/exclusion.
Post-colonial nationalism, American Civil Rights Movement, women’s suffrage and emancipation, the LGBTQ movement — all of these movements were primarily about inclusion.
Although people hardly think about liberalism today, I see inclusion as a logical extension of that very moral philosophy.
Everyone is an individual. We are all equal. And we should all be able to do whatever we want, as long as no one gets hurt.
We are still haunted by the ghost of the Enlightenment.
Today, diversity and inclusion are strongly linked to the enactment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“Diversity and inclusion” is slowly becoming institutionalized as a global norm.
I use this word often in my writings, but I have a feeling people don’t really know what I mean.
The Institutionalization of Norms
What I mean by institutionalization is the hardening of communicative events into more stable structures of society.
Each event that happens in society has a meaning. As communicative events repeat, these meanings and new ways of thinking about and understanding society become codified.
These ideas become mainstream. They may also become enshrined in law or more general and diffuse guidelines.
That’s how new norms form.
I hope that wasn’t too difficult to follow.
Let’s take again the example of diversity and inclusion. Perhaps the following chain of events plays out.
- A few individuals behave differently than the norm. For whatever reason.
- They start justifying their behavior as normal — either through appeal to science, individual choice, or some other rational reason. They’ve tried to attach a new meaning to their action.
- The movement gains followers and supporters who agree with them.
- Slowly, the movement gains strength; people start developing a common language to talk about diversity.
- Organizations start allying with the movement, and norms become institutionalized.
Slowly, companies find that they need to pay lip service to diversity and inclusion or face the risk of getting canceled.
Whether management truly believes in diversity and inclusion is irrelevant.
And that, my friend, is exactly what a social norm is.
In physics, we learn that energy cannot be destroyed. It can only be converted.
It is the same with norms. Norms cannot be destroyed, only replaced.
For what is society but the sum of social norms?
It is social norms that guide society, and the absence of norms is the absence of society.
© Alvin T. 2022
For other essays with a sociological slant, please check out the following writings.
The author is an editor of Japonica, a Japan-focused publication, but writes on a wide variety of topics. His key topics are society, culture, modern work, creator economy, and cryptocurrency, with the occasional fictional story, creative piece, or reflective essay. Discover his most-read stories here.
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