Childism

Childism has two different usages. Childism can refer to advocating for empowering children as a subjugated group, operate as a positive term for a movement, akin to feminism. Childism can also refer to discrimination against children, as a critical term for prejudice and discrimination against children, akin to racism. Both usages may be connected with critical theories and intersectionality, and furthermore with feminism, decolonialism and environmentalism, ageism, adultism and patriarchy.

The term "childism" was invented by Chester M. Pierce and Gail B. Allen in 1975 to equate the routinely negative and destructive treatment of children ("microaggressions") with everyday acts of racism. Elizabeth Young-Bruehl's "Childism" (2012) developed the Pierce-Allen construct to explore how childist, racist and sexist forms of prejudice motivate multi-abuse of children. In 2019, John Wall, founder of the Rutgers-based Childism Institute, redefined childism ("like feminism but for children") and distinguished it from Childhood Studies by its focus on activism. Childism in its original sense of discrimination against children provides a critical theoretical lens used in interdisciplinary studies and in critical child rights theory to explore intersectional forms of discrimination against children as a heterogenous group.

References

  1. ↑ Christodoulou, Nayia (15 Dec 2025). "Childism, Intersectionality and the Rights of the Child". The International Journal of Children's Rights. 33 (4): 1045–1050. doi:10.1163/15718182-33040009.
  2. ↑ Rosen, Rachel; Twamley, Katherine (2018). Feminism and the Politics of Childhood. London, UK: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1787350649.
  3. ↑ Biswas, Tanu (2023). "Becoming good ancestors: A decolonial, childist approach to global intergenerational sustainability". Children & Society. 37 (4): 1005–1020. doi:10.1111/chso.12722.
  4. ↑ Stirling, Bridge (2020). "Childhood, Ecological Feminism, and the Environmental Justice Frame". Canadian Studies. 88: 221–238. doi:10.4000/eccs.3632. Archived from the original on 2022-02-04. Retrieved 2025-04-09.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ Weir, Kirsten (March 1, 2023). "Ageism is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. Psychologists are working to change that". American Psychological Association.
  6. ↑ Oto, Ryan (2023-10-02). ""This is for us, not them": Troubling adultism through a pedagogy of solidarity in youth organizing and activism". Theory & Research in Social Education. 51 (4): 530–558. doi:10.1080/00933104.2023.2208538. ISSN 0093-3104.
  7. ↑ Wall, John (2006). "Childhood Studies, Hermeneutics, and Theological Ethics". The Journal of Religion. 86 (4): 523–548. doi:10.1086/505893.
  8. 1 2 McGillivray, Anne (2022-11-20). "On Childism". Canadian Journal of Children's Rights. 9 (1). doi:10.22215/cjcr.v9i1.3942. ISSN 2369-7512.
  9. ↑ Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth (2012). Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17311-6.
  10. ↑ Wall, John (2010). Ethics in Light of Childhood. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 9781589016927.
  11. ↑ Adami, Rebecca; Dineen, Katy (2021). "Discourses of Childism: How covid-19 Has Unveiled Prejudice, Discrimination and Social Injustice against Children in the Everyday" (PDF). The International Journal of Children's Rights. 29 (2): 353–370. doi:10.1163/15718182-29020001.