CHYS 2P51 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ethnocentrism, Pedophilia, Middle Ages
14 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Innocence can harm children because it voids them of complexity
○
A major discourse about children is innocence
-
Discourse Analysis:
Higher class has more resources to evacuate
People in poverty have limited resources
Looking at how it impacts different classes
□
Environmental storms that have a big impact on families and especially children and
youth. It is making vulnerable communities even more vulnerable
○
Storms:
-
Race is connected to the amount of money you have (socio economic
status)
□
Schools with a lot of black children are underfunded
□
Racialized spaces are differently resourced
□
Deeply racialized
▪
Problem of a school district
○
Its illegal to segregate children due to race
○
The (re)segregation of schools:
-
Emotionally and affectively touched by the notion of childhood innocence
○
Adults manipulate childhood innocence for their own personal gain (politics)
○
"innocent children need your earth"
-
Children and Youth in the News
Popular
○
A child's past is connected to the our past childhood
○
The child is defined as humanity's 'future' and the individuals past
-
Seen as vulnerable
○
We must protect the child
-
We must save the child from corruption, loss of innocence
-
Can use innocent childhood to make arguments on both sides of controversial topics
○
Adults do politics in the name of children
-
Research shows that black girls are treated less innocent than white girls even
when they have the same behavioral patterns
▪
Often due to race and class
○
Youth are criminalised based on socio economic status
▪
Based on class
○
Some children are represented as more 'innocent' than others
-
Thematic: Childhood Innocence
Children are ‘innocent’/children require training
-
Heterosexual things that are imposed on children even though they don't understand it
yet
○
Children are ignorant of complexity (sexuality, aggression, knowledge)
-
Childhood is a ‘universal’ phenomenon (race, class, gender and sex)
-
Deserve the same thing but need different things
○
‘Girls’ and ‘boys’ are equal/’Girls’ and ‘boys’ are very different
-
Socio economic status would eventually put constraints/ limits on children
○
Children are free to determine their own futures (class constraints? poverty? location)
-
Contradictory Ideas Surrounding Childhood (there is not consensus on how the child is
defined)
Week 2- Beyond Innocence: Discourse Analysis,
Histories of Childhood and Critical Theory
CHYS 2P51 Page 1
Document Summary
Innocence can harm children because it voids them of complexity. Environmental storms that have a big impact on families and especially children and youth. It is making vulnerable communities even more vulnerable. Race is connected to the amount of money you have (socio economic status) Schools with a lot of black children are underfunded. Its illegal to segregate children due to race. Emotionally and affectively touched by the notion of childhood innocence. Adults manipulate childhood innocence for their own personal gain (politics) The child is defined as humanity"s "future" and the individuals past. A child"s past is connected to the our past childhood. We must save the child from corruption, loss of innocence. Adults do politics in the name of children. Can use innocent childhood to make arguments on both sides of controversial topics. Some children are represented as more "innocent" than others.
