Transcript Professor Pease`s presentation

Understanding Adultism and Adult
Privilege: An Essential Step Towards
Honouring Children and Young
People
Bob Pease
University of Tasmania
Privilege
‘The word privilege is used to refer to
systematically conferred advantages
individuals enjoy by virtue of their
membership in dominant groups with access
to resources and institutional power that are
beyond the common advantages of
marginalised citizens’ (Bailey 1998: 109).
Intersecting Sites of Privilege
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Western Global Dominance and Eurocentrism
Political Economy and Class Elitism
Gender Order and the Patriarchal Dividend
Racial Formations and White Supremacy
Institutionalised Heterosexuality and HeteroPrivilege
• Ableist Relations and the Embodiment of
Privilege (Pease 2010).
The Invisibility of Privilege
• Most privilege is not recognised as such by those who have it.
• When people are unable to recognise their privilege, they are
unable to see their role in keeping other groups subordinated.
Normativity
• Privileged groups become the model for normal human
relations.
• Because the privileged are regarded as normal, they are less
likely to be studied or researched because the norm does not
have to be marked.
Naturalisation
• Gender, race, sexuality and class are regarded as flowing from
nature.
• Members of privileged groups either believe that they have
inherited the characteristics that give them advantages or
they consciously cover up the socially constructed basis of
their dominance.
Sense of entitlement
• Members of privileged groups believe that they have a right
to be respected, acknowledged, protected and rewarded.
• Members of privileged groups believe that they deserve
whatever benefits and status they attain because they have
struggled for them.
Issues facing children and young
people
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Physical and sexual abuse
Punishment and threats
Denial of legal rights
Discrimination
Negative media portrayals
Negative community attitudes and prejudice
Adultism
• ‘Adultism refers to behaviours and attitudes
based on the assumption that adults are
better than young people and entitled to act
upon young people without their agreement’
(Bell 1995).
• Describes the oppression of children and
young people by adults.
• Most adults do not recognise the effect of
adultism on young people or themselves.
Adult Privilege Checklist
As a child:
• I am not allowed to vote, even though government makes decisions about
me.
• It is often considered acceptable, appropriate and even desirable for my
caregiver to physically assault me if I do not please them.
• If I am routinely yelled at, criticized and belittled in my own home, this
might not generally be recognised as abusive behaviour.
• I am routinely ignored or told to be quiet.
• Adults often feel they have the right to harass me.
• Society and the media often portray me in a negative light.
• People often make decisions on my behalf and tell me they know better
than I do about what is best for me.
• I am not usually given a choice about my place of education.
• I am not usually given a choice about what religion to follow
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(Source: http://shutupsitdown.co.uk/2009/11/16/the-adult-privilege-checklist/)
Forms of Adultism
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Laws
Child development literature and education
Cultural practices
Adult attitudes
Institutional practices
Parenting
Premises of adultism
• Inferior status of children and young people is
assumed to be a result of their inferior mental
capacities.
• Appeals to the ‘best interests’ of children and young
people.
• Paternalistic justifications
• Subordination is constructed as biological, natural
and normal
• How do we distinguish between behaviour, policies
and procedures that are respectful, protective and
developmentally appropriate?
Biology and developmental
psychology
• What is the relationship between the biological and
the social in age development?
• Biologism: the explanation of social and
psychological life with reference to biological causes.
• The premise of developmental psychology is the
question: How does a biological infant turn into a
social being?
• Entry into society is seen as a gradual move from the
biological into a social being.
The social construction of
childhood
• Childhood at one level refers to a biological
condition. But it is not inherent in biology.
• Children and childhood are constructed.
• Childhood is conceived of differently in
different cultures and different historical
periods.
• Does the concept of childhood limit
citizenship rights?
What does citizenship mean for
children?
• Should children have the right to vote? If so, which children?
• Can children have a voice in society and represent themselves? If so,
which children?
• Should children have access to confidential medical care? At what age
should parents no longer have the right to know about their children’s
medical care?
• In cases involving concerns about children’s well-being, especially reports
of harm, are all children able to make decisions about their immediate and
future safety that professionals must act upon?
• What might be the ethical implications for professionals who act on
children’s wishes and there is subsequent harm to the child?
• What might be the legal implications in terms of professional liability and
duty of care towards the child and other interested parties? (D’Cruz and
Stagnitti 2005).
The social construction of
adolescence
• Adolescence is a term describing a series of
developmental stages that it is assumed all
people go through.
• Adolescence is the period in the life course in
which individuals are seen to be most likely
alienated.
• Adolescence is seen as a ‘hormonal time
bomb’ and full of ‘raging hormones’.
• Adolescence as a myth.
Objections to calling adultism a
form of oppression
• The biological state of being young is
temporary.
• The legal status of being young is temporary.
• Age is a continuum.
• All human beings are young at one time.
• Children and young people are dependent on
adults.
• Nearly every child goes on to become and
adult.
Experiences of children and young
people
• Do children and young people believe
themselves to be part of a subordinated
group?
• Research demonstrating children’s and young
people’s experiences of age inequality.
• Children’s rights movements
Intersectionality and adultism
• Age categories are presented as uncovering
truths about all children.
• Different cultural, ethnic, gender, class and
religious approaches complicate the concept
of adultism.
• Adultism is intersected with other social
locations.
Challenging adultism
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Teaching adults about adultism
Unlearning adultism
Adults as allies
Youth-led movements