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Childism

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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[1]. Both usages may be connected with critical theories and intersectionality, and furthermore with feminism,[2] decolonialism[3] and environmentalism,[4] ageism,[5] adultism[6] and patriarchy.[7]

The term "childism" was invented by Chester M. Pierce and Gail B. Allen in 1975[8] to equate the routinely negative and destructive treatment of children ("microaggressions") with everyday acts of racism.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] 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[11].

References

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  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.
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