Between children & adults

• Firestone (1979): 


  care and protection are new forms of oppression & control e.g. protection from paid work doesn’t benefit children, it’s a form of inequalit. Instead we need to free children from adult control (Child-liberation).
• 1. Neglect & abuse of children

  childline - 20000 calls per year of physical or sexual abuse = dark side to family life.
• 2. Control over children’s space 


  UK regulates children’s play areas.

  Stranger danger = children transported by parents.
• 3. Control over children’s time

  Daily routines, and the speed in which children ‘grow up’ is controlled by adults.

  • links to custody conflict - courts / parents decision, not the child’s.
• 4. Control over children’s bodies

  exercise/ clubs they do, clothes, hairstyles, piercings, smacking, kissing, cuddling, etc…
• 5. Control over children’s access to resources

  limited opportunities for work and wading money and freedom - child benefit to parents not child, school - not part time work, pocket money.
• 6. Age patriarchy


  inequalities between adults and children.

  • Gittins: domestic violence - mother in control of child, child become victim with mother.
• AO3: 


  adult control of children’s lives is justified, children can’t make rational decisions or safeguard their own interests.

  e.g. 1989 children act protects children