Adultism is pervasive throughout society. The bias towards adults happens everywhere, all the time, from our families to our institutions; our economies to our cultures. This isn’t inherently bad; it simply is.

The Roots of Adultism

The social roots of adultism are supported by the belief that society exists in order to promote overconsumption, the accumulation of wealth, and increased status/perception. If you want things to stay the way they are and for our social system to continuously reinforce the power of the powerful, while making sure the powerless don’t get that power, then adultism is good, right, acceptable, promotable, and necessary, everywhere, all the time.

Young and older people who are struggling against adultism are not failed consumers or social miscreants. They’re not just low-income youth, youth with single parents, or youth that live in segregated neighborhoods who don’t have adult guidance from parents, teachers, social workers, or other adults. They are people who are resisting predominant social values that ensure compliance and reinforce blind adherence to social norms that don’t reflect their perspectives.

They’re standing against discrimination by others who’d have them become blinded by systems of alienation and segregation that reinforce negative social perspectives and demeaning cultural norms. They are demanding through action that the old boxes that used to bind our society be broken through. They’re struggling against racial segregation, socio-economic isolationism, the corporatization of individualism, and age-based discrimination.