sorry unpopular opinion but everybody is obligated to be kind and tolerant to children. white feminism convinced y’all that hating them is an act of resistance against the patriarchy but the reality is that kindness to children has never been the norm, just parenthood.

in the US our social infrastructure has active contempt for kids and their ability to develop healthily, even moreso when those kids are bipoc, disabled, neurodivergent, lgbt, and so on. a lot of the rhetoric used to demonize kids is especially loaded towards marginalized kids.

not sure how to explain to many people that a lot of your childhood trauma could have been caused or compounded by the fact that you had no advocacy, no recourse, and your behavioral issues were disregarded or even punished, because adults in your life thought like you do now.

you don’t have to be a parent or a caretaker or even voluntarily put yourself in environments where children are present. you literally just have to be responsible and careful with your power over them, which is the most basic form of kindness.

@ those asking what this has to do with white feminism— treating children as symbols of “the patriarchy” with no regard for how race factors into child rearing and maternity politics & the abuse of children of color has been a constant characteristic of white feminism.

one last aside since this got way too much traction: this thread was not me blaming white feminists for infrastructure in this country that preceded them, lmao. this was just me reflecting on y’all’s behavior online being framed as empowerment. carry on.