What Do I Mean by ‘Constitutive’        

To say briefly what I mean by “constitutive”. I understand the word “constitutive” as that from which things are made. In our case here, “made” by the mind, whether individual or collective.

Something constitutes another thing when it somehow shapes that thing such that that thing now is seen—and, perhaps, sees itself--in terms of that constitution.

For instance, the gold chalice is defined as a chalice by the molding by which the gold is shaped into the form of that chalice. That molding by which an otherwise unformed glob of soft gold comes to be as a chalice (as opposed to a ring, for instance) constitutes that once unformed glob as that which it is seen as being: a chalice.

Without that particular molding and shaping force, its ‘chalice-ness’ could not possibly come into being.

Somewhat like the chalice, my (and other’s) understanding of myself as a man is shaped by the psycho-social molding of the particular culture in which I live (different when I am in Sweden than it is when I am in the US, which is different than it is when I’m in Italy or India).

That ‘shaping’ happens in such a way that I (and others) see myself in terms of that understanding; that who I am as a man is, in no small part, strongly identified with that particular understanding of what it is to be a man, given by the particularculture in which I currently dwell or with which I identify. I see myself, and to a certain degree, others see me in the terms by which a given culture has shaped the notion of maleness and masculinity.

Who I am as a man is constituted by that understanding to the degree that I (and others) identify with that understanding. In any given moment, I operate—I move, I speak, I think—in terms of that understanding, without ever really giving a single thought to that understanding or that identity.

The constituting force of that particular understanding of masculinity has done its work when my thoughts, my feelings, and even my very bodily carriage, embodies that particular understanding of what it is to be a man.