[vanderZwan]

> to the point where the invented categories had reified into something kinda real

The "kinda" in that sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It's a "real" social construct. It's not "real" in the sense of representing "real" human nature, or a "real" order of how things ought to be, which is how that social construct is wielded in practice.

[klipt]

Right, plenty of things are social constructs. Race, gender, laws, money. Arguing over whether these things are real or not is, I think, missing the point. The real argument should be over whether they're beneficial concepts or not.