I am a firm believer in the personhood of children and that children are an oppressed group. It pains me to see so much child hate within feminism; not from all feminists of course, but there certainly is a lot of mother-blaming and child hate in some pockets of feminism. Many others have spoken eloquently and thoughtfully about this before me, so I’m not going to reiterate what they’ve said. Long story short, I believe that children’s rights are important, and that feminists in being progressive and advocating for marginalised groups of all kinds, should be invested in working for the rights of all oppressed groups – including children.
Reading a post by Elena Perez at California NOW made me think about privilege checklists (like the Male Privilege Checklist and the White Privilege Checklist, for example) and I came to the realisation that, as yet, nobody had written an adult privilege checklist. So with some help from my good friend Jenny, using some of Elena Perez’s ideas from the aforementioned post, I set about writing the Adult Privilege Checklist.
Well now it’s finished. I’m not going to reproduce the whole thing here, because I’d like to keep it in one place. But click here – Adult Privilege Checklist – and take a look! It’s in something of a rough draft format/work-in-progress right now, and all opinions and suggestions are very welcome. I imagine it will grow and evolve over time, so do keep checking back.
November 19, 2009 at 12:09 pm
“If I am allowed to earn money at all, it will be at a lower rate than adults doing the exact same work.” (UK minimum wage is lower for under eighteens and lower still for under sixteens, for the exact same work.)
November 19, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Good one Ruth. When I was 16 and working (not that long ago, either) there was no minimum wage for under-18s either! Now there’s one at 16, one at 18 and one at 21. Still ridiculous that companies can pay people less based purely on their age!
November 19, 2009 at 6:10 pm
There is only a minimum wage for under18s if you’re over compulsory school age! http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nmw/
No minimum wage if you’re 15 or under.
The minimum wage(s) are so low it’s sickening, anyway.
And what is the point of even having a MINIMUM wage if there are so many expections! It makes me very cross!
July 14, 2011 at 5:37 am
[...] Reading: Television’s Kid Problem by s.e. smith at this ain’t livin Adult Privilege Checklist by anji at Mothers For Women’s Lib The radical notion that children are people by me at Spilt [...]