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Childism is the automatic presumption of superiority of any adult over any child; it results in the adult's needs, desires, hopes, and fears taking unquestioned precedence over those of the child. It goes beyond the biologic necessity that requires adults to sustain the species by means of authoritative, unilateral decisions. What is at issue is how the decision is executed and how the child is afforded dignity and respect.
In contemporary America there is a belief that me society is child-oriented and that children take priority. This is, in actuality, far from the truth. Whatever qualities the child possesses, he is cUscriminated against simply because he is a child. We contend that childism is the basic form of oppression in our society and underlies all alienation and violence, for it teaches everyone how to be an oppressor and makes them focus on the exercise of raw power rather than on volitional humaneness. The object of this article is to emphasize the ubiquity of childism, in the hope that with increased awareness it can be minimized, for - like its derivatives, sexism and racism - it is found in virtually everyone. Modification of childist practices would alter other oppressive systems that retard the development of humankind to its full potential.
The theory of childism as the basic form of oppression evolved from a project concerning children and the mass media. We were studying commercials and the content of television in regards to racism, and content analysis forced our attention to the similarities between racism, sexism, and generationalism, including childism. On the theory that television both reflects and molds the society, we tried to analyze what was being presented and how it would affect the children who watched it.
A child accomplishes prodigious intellectual feats - learning one or more languages, the cues of his culture, and the symbolism of his environment - and television has considerable influence on this process. It shows the child what is permitted, accepted, and expected. So we looked at how children were depicted in television commercials, and in essence they were most commonly shown in a devalued way. They were dirty, they whined for their food, they retarded family cooperation, and they were "physical creatures" as opposed to thinking beings. They...