ABSTRACT
The term childhood marks a specifi c temporal and social designation of assumed human development. For many of us, it evokes images of carefree days, of being lavished with attention, love and affection, of play and learning, of being protected from physical and moral harm by one’s parents and sheltered from social contamination and malaise by one’s society.1 The equation of childhood with a time of innocence and protection is and has been
an experience of those whose identities have afforded them access to those forms of protection. Childhood is not an essential or universal category, not an automatic benefi t of one’s age or time of life, but rather the product of a discursive structure that both empowers and marginalizes subjects on the basis of markers of identity such as class, race, sex and gender.
