Childhood

• Modern western notion

  • Pilcher: modern idea that childhood is seperateness. A clear distinct stage of life stage
  • Childhood as the 'golden age' of happiness and innocence where they are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection fromthe dangers of the adult world
• Childhood as a social construct

  • Wagg: 'childhood is socially constructed. There is no single universal childhood'
  • Other cultures don't see a great difference between chidren and adults
• Difference in treatment from modern western

  • Benedict idenifies 3 ways
  • Take responisibility from an early age: Punch found in Bolivia children from 5 are exected to work in the home & community
  • Less value in showing obedience to adults: Firth found among Tikopia, doing as you're told by an adult in not a right to be ecpected
  • Sexual behaviour: Malinowski found among Trobriand Islanders, adults took an attitudeof tolerance and interest towards chldren's sexual exploration
• Historical differences - Aries

  • In Middle Ages the idea of childhood did not exist
  • Children were not seen as having a different 'nature' or needs from adults
  • In effect they were mini-adults with the same righst and duties as adults
• Modern cult of childhood - Aries

  • 13thc onwards
  • Schools came to purely educate the young
  • There was a growing distinction between adults' & chilldren's clothing
  • By 18thc handbooks on childrearing were available - a sign of grwoing child centredness
• Modern cult of childhood - Criticism

  • Pollack: argues it is more correct to say that in the Middle Ages society had a different notion of childhood from today's
• Reasons for change in position of children

  • Laws restricting child labour - children now financially dependent on their children
  • Compuslory schooling
  • Child protection & welfare legislation - 1989 Children Act
  • Laws about sex and smoking reinforcing the idea that children are different from adults
• Disappearance of childhood - Postman

  • Growing similarities between adults & children e.g clothing
  • Children committing 'adult' crimes e.g murder
  • This is due to television culture
  • In Middle Ages most were illiterate and speech was a skill of the adult world
• Information hierarchy - Postman

  • The printed word creates an information hierarchy - a sharp division between adults who can read & children who can't
  • This gives adults the power to keep knowledge about sex, money, violence, death a secret from children
  • But, TV blurs the distinction between adults & children destroying the information hierarchyas it does not require special skills to access TV
• Disappearance of childhood - Criticism

  • Opie: childhood is not disappearing and there still is a separate culture based on her research of children's games, rhymes and songs
• Childhood in postmodernity - Jenks

  • As change is speeding up, relationships are becoming less stables with divorce much more common
  • This generates feelings of insecurity. Adults relationships with their children are becoming more important as a source of identity & stability
  • Aduts are more fearful for their children's security and are preocuppied with protecting them
• Childhood in postmodernity - Criticism

  • Over-generalised statement assuming that all children are in the same position
  • Families are more diverse e.g. lone-parent or stepfamilies
• March of progress view - Aries & Shorter

  • Children are more valued, better cared for & protected from harm and exploitation by laws against child abuse and labour
  • Better healthcare and higher standards of living mean that babies have a better chance of survival
  • 1900 Infant mortality rate - 154 per 1,000 births
  • Today is 4 per 100 births
• 'Toxic childhood' - Palmer

  • Rapid technological & cultural changes have damaged children's physical, emotional & intellectual development
  • E.g -Junk food, computer, intensive marketing, emphasis of testing in education
  • UNICEF survey 2013 - UK 16th out of 29 for children's well being
• Inequalities among children

  • Not all share the same status or experience
  • 90% of world's low birth-weight babies are born in developing countries
  • Hillman: boys more likely to be allowed to cross roads, use buses or go out at night unaccompanied
  • Bonke: girls in lone-parent families do 5X more housework than boys
  • Poor mothers more likely to have low birth-weight babies which can link to delayed intellectual development
  • Brannen: Asian parents stricter than other parents towards daughters
• Neglect & abuse

  • 2020: 50,000 children were subject to child protection plans because deemed to be a risk of harm (most from own parents)
  • Childline recieves over 20,000 calls a year from children said to been sexually or physically abused
  • This indicates a 'dark side' to family life
• Control over children's space

  • Shops displaying signs like 'no schoolchildren'
  • Children forbidden to play in certain areas
  • 'Stranger danger' - In 1971 86% of primary children travelled home alone
  • 2013 - only 12%
• Control over children's bodies

  • Adults controlling how they sit, walk, run and what they wear
  • Touched by adults in scially acceptable ways - hand held or disciplined by smacking
  • Told not to touch their own bodies - not to pick their nose, suck their thumb or play with their genitals (contrast to Troriand Island where they can enjoy sexual freedom)
• Control over children's access to resources

  • Limited ways to earn money so they are still financially dependent on parents
  • Child benefit from state goes to parent not child
  • Pocket money depending on 'good' behaviour and restrictions on what it can be spent on
• Age patriarchy - Gittens

  • Adult domination & child dependency
  • Patriarchy meaning 'rule by father' and it oppresses children & women
  • Humphrey's & Thiara: 1/4 of 200 women left their abusing partner because they feared for their children's lives