Social construct

[Becky]

A rhetorical technique used (often by a neurotic undergraduate a with [a Yoko Ono] tattoo) to deny the existence of irrefutable fact. But this is not its original meaning:
Properly understood, a social construct is a thing that emerges as a result of social interaction. For instance, the price of gold is a social construct—it emerges from the market for gold as an [approximation] of how society presently values gold in relation to another asset, usually currency.
Social [constructs] are no less real than the price of gold is real. Its not as real as gold itself, but its pretty damn real.