Childism


Childism can refer either to advocacy for empowering children as a subjugated group or to prejudice and/or discrimination against children or childlike qualities. It can operate thus both as a positive term for a movement, like the term feminism, as well as a critical term to identify a phenomenon, like the term racism. The concept is first described and explored in an article by Chester M. Pierce and Gail B. Allen in 1975. The most extensive treatment of childism as a negative phenomenon is Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's last work, published posthumously, Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children.