okay, i am deeply sorry, i know a lot of you on this website are not a big fan of kids and children in general but PRETTY PLEASE can we just NOT normalize the âi donât like/i hate children but i donât wanna hurt themâ? because, thatâs not fucking possible, okay? thatâs two views you can NOT simultaneously hold.
because, letâs talk for real, the problem isnât just direct violence â itâs the dehumanization of children, which feeds prejudice against childhood, childism, and adultism. this logic IS NOT neutral, and itâs one of the most sophisticated ways prejudice gets perpetuated.
ânot liking/hating childrenâ reinforces the idea that theyâre annoying, dramatic, inconvenient... less human â and therefore easier to discard, silence, or sacrifice for adult comfort.
elisabeth young-bruehl defines childism as prejudice against children as a social group, comparable to racism, sexism, and homophobia. it functions like any other -ism: an ideology that legitimizes treating a group as property, as inferior, or as available for exploitation. she also shows that childism isnât limited to extreme cases of violence â it shows up in a whole range of practices that arenât in childrenâs best interest: neglect, underfunding of schools, the abusive use of medication on childrenâŠ
saying âi donât like/i hate childrenâ isnât an innocent preference or just a phrase â itâs literally the biased expression of a worldview that dehumanizes and diminishes this group. thatâs exactly what childism is.
young-bruehl emphasizes that adults who practice childism âall rely upon a societal prejudice against children to justify themselves and legitimate their behavior.â [p.1] a lot of people may not consciously âhateâ children or raise a hand to hit them â but the prejudice allows them to tolerate structures that harm children on a massive scale (child poverty, incarceration, violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect, etc.).
rebecca adami uses the concept of childism to analyze adult resistance to actually implementing childrenâs rights: prejudice against children gets translated into laws, policies, and practices that deny basic freedoms and normalize their subordination. just like a racist can say âi donât want to see black people getting hurtâ while supporting policies that harm them â an adult who âhates childrenâ is, in practice, feeding the cultural climate that makes violence against children thinkable, justifiable, or dismissed.
adami also shows that childism helps us understand how children are exposed to âprejudices, negative attitudes and discriminatory structures in societyâ â and how this connects to the weak implementation of the un convention on the rights of the child.
the old idea that âchildren are just mini adultsâ has been challenged by childhood sociology, and children are now recognized as rights-bearing subjects who deserve to be heard and respected in their choices.
claiming itâs âfine to dislike and/or hate childrenâ means refusing them that status â putting them back in the position of nuisance, of ânoisy things,â of objects. which is exactly what critical theory identifies as the core of adultism and childism.
madeline lane-mckinley argues we live in a world that is âdeeply against children,â where theyâre treated as extensions of the family, the state, or capital â not as autonomous people. she also talks about âadult supremacyâ and proposes a politics of solidarity with children, understanding them as comrades in the fight for a better future.
lane-mckinley also points out that the figure of the child has historically been weaponized in service of white supremacy, empire, and political projects that decide which children deserve protection â and which ones can be abandoned to poverty, war, forced migration.
in other words, discourses of hatred and contempt for children participate in the symbolic economy that makes some childrenâs lives more exposed to violence.
and finally â in ethical and political terms, there is no way to separate âhatingâ (or âdislikingâ) children from passive participation in structures that authorize harm against them.
the only position thatâs coherent with childrenâs rights and with critiques of childism is to let go of that hatred and commit to recognition, listening, and active solidarity.
so yeah. thereâs no neutral ground here.
