Adultocracy
From YRN
Adultocracy is the combination of attitudinal, cultural, political and structural mechanisms adults use to impose their authority, domination and supremacy over children and youth.
Contents |
Coinage
In 1997 author and youth advocate Brian Dominick wrote that adultocracy is "the notion that adulthood is possessed of a certain quality of responsibility not found in the aged or young." [1]
In a another essay Dominick wrote,
- "For the youth liberation movement, adultocracy is the chief adversary. Its agents, we must remember, are not only adults but also other young people who have internalized notions of the adult/child dichotomy and thus perpetuate disruption of class consciousness. In other words, we are all oppressors of one kind or another. This primarily takes the form of invalidation. How often do we see kids who feel worthless because they are kids? And who abuse those kids who do not feel worthless as such? If we did not oppress ourselves so efficiently, we would be able to rise up and fight in unity. But alas, we cannot, because we are too busy incorporating ageism into our daily lives."[2]
Usage
Adultocracy is closely related to several other terms in the Youth Rights Movement. It can be said that American society is an adultocracy that relies on infantalization in order to promote disparity between young people and adults. Infantilization is often promoted through commercialism, which actively promotes juenism in order to make adults feel like they want to be younger, while promoting adultism to children and youth, in order to make them want to be older.
Barring the effectiveness of infantalization, popular media, politicians and researchers often criminalize young people in order to foster mass pedophobia and ephebiphobia in the popular American psyche. This ongoing demonization has proven successful, as more public funds are withdrawn from the benefit of young people, and more column pages in newspapers and online are dedicated to youth bashing.
Young people who identify themselves as oppressed have a responsibility to arm themselves with knowledge and skills in order to fight against these tools of inequity. Adults who identify themselves as advocates or allies with young people must also become active in this fight. Only through the creation of youth-adult partnerships can the youth rights movement foster intergenerational equity, effectively securing democracy for all.
See also
References
- ↑ Dominick, B. (1997) Radical Veganism. excerpted from the pamphlet “Animal Liberation and Social Revolutionâ€. Critical Mess Media.
- ↑ (n.d.) Liberating Youth. ZNet Youth Watch.
| Articles: | Fear of children • Fear of youth • Ageism • Adultism • Adultcentrism • Adultocracy • Infantalism • Adult-industrial complex |
