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The obvious angle is that much of the anger/hate aimed at children is in actual fact anger at parents. A poorly socialized child can make a movie or a plane ride a living nightmare, but really, we all know who's at fault.
It's awfully tempting, though, to blame the victim, particularly since that victim is the one whose kicking and screaming are immediate and catastrophic and actively irritating, whereas Mom and Dad's ineffective pleading, their spineless simpers, their whiny little cutesy voices, the slow and relentless incremental fuck-ups that led them to this place where they are in utterly over their heads and now everyone within a fifty-foot radius is reaping the whirlwind—well, that's merely disheartening.
And following on from Haus: Childhood is also a temporary state, whereas race, sexuality et cetera are generally permanent. We've all grown up, so we all know that childhood can be beaten, can be gotten over, given time and effort—which may make us less sympathetic to kids than to those whose identity-signifiers cannot be so easily surmounted.
So, for instance, we can grin and bear it when a paraplegic slows our progress through a revolving door: after all, the poor bastard can't help it. But if it's a whining child clinging to its mother that impedes our passage, then we—who were once children, but who got better—naturally enough respond by thinking, Jesus, kid, would you just grow up?!? |
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