CALL FOR PAPERS CONFERENCE ON MISOPAEDIA

authors

• Kovacshazy Cécile

keywords

• Adultism
• Childism
• Child studies
• Misopaedia

abstract

Misopédie. Adult domination in contemporary artistic, scientific, political and medical discourses, University of Limoges October 3-4, 2024 Misopaedia is the hatred of children (in the same way as misogyny is the hatred of women). It's the feeling of contempt - most often unconscious - that we hold for the youngest, the rejection that we subject them to in the workings of the polis. Being or having been a child is the one and only universal experience common to every human being on the planet. And yet, generation after generation reproduces an inability to empathize with childhood, once we've left it behind. This misopedia is not universal, but it is fairly widespread, and of course varies according to time and place. Adults, for the most part and almost constantly, allow themselves to do things to children that any adult in a position to defend themselves would vehemently refuse to do: forcing them to sit still for hours on end at an age when physical movement is a need, not a leisure activity, shouting at them, imposing specific times for urinating, beating up those weaker than themselves, threatening them, blackmailing them, punishing them for feeling emotions (remember that anger is the natural expression of a boundary not respected... the egg comes from the hen that comes from the egg), using oppressive humor, etc. But children in today's society have no way of defending themselves.

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