Intersections of youth and other aspects of the kyriarchy

[sqbr]

naraht's post Adult privilege linking to The Adult Privilege Checklist has a great discussion in the comments poking at the various aspects of adult privilege and possible criticisms of the list. hl's response The Opression of Chilhood. In which I try for emotionless and hard analysis (and fail) got me thinking about intersections.

I don't have any major point, just some thoughts.

So:

• I think a lot of "why don't people pull themselves up by their bootstraps" classism/racism glosses over the fact that children REALLY can't do this. (Not that it's fair to expect it of anyone, but noone's going to deny it's stupid to expect it of say a baby)
  
• Control over sexuality and identity is a MAJOR issue for intersex children, and anyone else with an "abnormal" but functional body who is operated on without their consent "for their own good".
  
• The way children are forced into their parents ethnic/cultural values is a serious issue for interracial/international adoptees.
  

There's more along those lines, but if I wait until I have more to say I'll never get around to posting this :)

EDIT: Adult Privilege Linkspam and A Transformational Politic (bell hooks).

I find myself pondering the similarities and differences with the treatment of disabled people, especially those with cognitive disabilities.

Comments

[hl]

Very interesting and true points!

One caveat. Many people do think/state that children should/could pull themselves up through education, though, as they don't admit that the environment those children grow up in will necessarily qualify that.

As an example, I was never very good at maths--I suspect that the usual 'math is difficult' cultural thing got to me, too--but I was always able to turn to my older siblings for help, so I was one of the best in my class, even if I didn't pay any attention at the time, or almost never studied: when I needed it, they were there to sit with me and explain in different ways until I got it. Not many children have college educated people--three, even!--at their disposal.

And so I was expected to understand by teachers, who never got to see me struggling, and consequently understanding was easier for me. And I was expected to go to college, and hold a better job at the end of it. Nothing of that is pulling myself up through effort alone, but people don't really want to admit it. If kids cannot pass classes with good grades, they're 'just not that smart', and 'they don't have a future'. (I had teacher who used those same words. -_-)

(Your link to A Tranformational Politic is borked.)

[sqbr]

Oh yes. I was thinking more of the "If you can't pay for health care you should just get two jobs" argument, but people do expect kids to transcend their environment in a lot of ways.

I am superficially a great example of self improvement: I went to a terrible primary school but taught myself a lot of stuff off educational tv and books etc, then got a scholarship to a good highschool and then a scholarship to do a Phd, all despite my parents not having much money for most of that period.
But
(a)I'm very academic, and people shouldn't have to be as academic as me to get a halfway decent education (my medium-scholarly siblings didn't get scholarships and ended up dropping out of their local state highschool, though they ended up in tertiary education after a few rough years)
(b)I would have been screwed if Australia didn't have a mostly ok state-funded education system, especially for my undergraduate degree.
(c) My parents are very pro-education, encouraged and helped me learn, and did things like taking me to a lot of scholarship application exams.