Julia Fox says childhood was invented in the 18th century

[Teletubby 138,798]

 

[artdoll 45,596]

@Cello come get your girl

[KORG 4,756]

Cherubs, hun.

[rinasawachanta 2,674]

In fact, according to historian Philippe Aries, childhood as a category and cultural dispositif was invented (as we know it to this day) in the late 17th and early 18th century.

[nATAH 44,228]

i love sh*t like this, how something so normal now was completely different 200+ish years ago

imagine bringing someone from back then to now, seeing children watch cocomelon and not working until age 16 the earliest

[LaFama 4,393]

Little adults in the 17th century 

[Ivy 11,756]

 

But actually I did read about this, but it's not that it was invented, it just was realized that children should be treated differently. It's kind of interesting  

[RenegAde 18,314]

Can we let kids be kids?, everyone is not like your child Julia.

[dollardays 3,388]

Her conclusion is so wrong tho 

[nATAH 44,228]

i also kinda love her final point on buying mini-mops/brooms etc to teach children basic self care and life skills from a young age, like a mary poppins vibe "mopping is fun!" gig

obviously not strenuous labour but doses of showing them how we keep things clean and keep ourselves clean, i've seen too many people who would rather just book a cleaner when it really isn't that hard

for sure way more beneficial than that mind numbing Cocomelon

[LaLa 19,238]

Hm. She's a bit all over the place here 

Yes for sure what we think of as childhood and the age range that defines a child has shifted dramatically all throughout history. And what is acceptable for kids to do and be has changed (like tiny kids working or girls getting married at 12 etc). 

And yes for sure kids today should be taught life skills early and often! Duh!

But the "concept" of childhood wasn't invented to sell stuff lol, we know much more now about how the brain develops and that kids are not just mini adults 

[Supersonic 49,376]

Prime example of dangerous half-truths. Yes, childhood was invented in the 18th century when industrialization took place in Europe.

It wasn't because they wanted to sell parents expensive sh*t it was because they realized that literal 4 years olds cannot operate complex machinery to manufacture goods. Children were WORKING the same jobs as their parents regularly caused disasters where multiple people DIED. On top of that, making a child work like an adult stifles their physical and mental development, which sharply increased death rates of the youngins. The invention of childhood was an act of self-perservance (but also, of course motivated by up and coming capitalism, factory owners want to keep labour forces alive & profitable and not destroying products that are worth a fortune).

In medieval Europe, kids were pretty much seen as "legal" age by the time they were 12 and that's when it was expected girls to birth their first children as well. (Often times girls were married to their 50 year old uncles, but that's another ass topic)

Selling expensive sh*t to parents is a much newer development that happened a lot later (starting in the cold war) because of America's tendency to go apesh*t with capitalism and how they love forcing their cultural norms & values on every country they possibly can under the guise of "bringing in wealth" and "modernization". 

I f*cking hat this internet trend of like... making half a point and then going off the f*cking rails because nobody f*cking cares to fact check, mixing in actual facts with just straight up personal opinions in order to sell your audience as facts. This like exactly what Fox News does, but like with the most trivial low impact information. 

[weed 71,635]

she spilled

[Supersonic 49,376]

double post

[AlabasterBones 238]

Some of the stuff she said/how she said it is off, but I get her point overall. i agree that kids should be taught life skills in a fun and kid-friendly way from a fairly early age, though of course they still need and deserve to play and do interactive kiddy things. My parents spoiled and coddled me until I was in my late teens and boy I had the shock of tmy life when I moved out for uni. As did all my other raised spoiled flatmates. We were useless as **** except this one guy from Nigeria who told us he’d been cooking and cleaning since he was a kid.