英语学习：儿童歧视背后的偏见
Sexism是性别歧视，racism是种族歧视，而心理分析家Elisabeth Young-Bruehl就认为社会对儿童作为一个群组存在根深蒂固的歧视，这是儿童受到不公平对待和虐待的主因，必须正视。她把对儿童的歧视称为"childism"。
棍棒底下出孝子
所有歧视背后都是prejudice(偏见)。所以要了解为什么成人会做出伤害孩子的行为，就先要明白背后的偏见︰
We cannot understand the acts that harm children unless we understand the prejudices that underlie and, in the actor's mind, legitimize them.
Legitimize解使合法。她在Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children指出，这些偏见让虐儿者觉得他们的行为是合法的。
The prevailing images or stereotypes(典型) of children that individual adults and societies use to rationalize(合理化) their feelings towards them are, taken together, their childism.
那这用来开脱childism的偏见是什么？
Consider the following sentiments(情绪), which are probably uttered(说出来) every day without thought in the United States: "Kids are just wild unless you keep them in line, and that includes hitting them"; "If you don't smack(打) them, they don't get tamed(驯服)"; and the time-honored "Spare the rod and spoil the child."
"Spare the rod and spoil the child"(孩子不打就会宠坏)，这种说法东西方都有。棒下出孝子，严师出高徒”这句话所代表的就是同样的想法。若社会普遍流行这种想法，虐待孩子就是顺理成章、合情合理。
These viewpoints are childist: they construct children as wild animals that should be physically controlled - they must be broken or they will not be obedient, useful possessions.
(这些说法是歧视︰因为他们把孩子看作野兽，不用暴力对待，不打垮他们的意志，他们就不会就范，乖乖的成为听话、有用的拥有物。)
体罚两面睇
当然，并非所有体罚都是歧视和虐待的。责罚孩子教他不要乱跑到马路上是一回事，打他令他驯服又是另一回事；后者就是childism的表现。
The parent who hits a child in order to protect it from danger - to teach the child not to run into the road, for example, is doing something very different from the one who disciplines(惩戒) the child in order to break(打击) him or her; this discipline is rather a violent contest of wills, resembling(类似) the discipline that used to be thought necessary for animal trainers or cowboys but is now recognized as brutality(暴虐行为).
她认为除非社会承认对儿童存有偏见，明白偏见是什么，否则childism不会消除。但现今美国经济正处于水深火热之中，一时三刻情况似乎都不会有重大转变︰
The situation is not likely to improve as America deals with a new economic crisis. Further escalation(升级) in childism is likely unless the new leadership generation acknowledges that prejudice against children is a social reality as well as a feature of individual psychology(心理) and pathology(病理).
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