Yes. In other words, we all accept that rape *changes* childhood. It does not *end* childhood.
Unless you literally mean it turns a child into an adult, the claim that it "ends" childhood is meaningless and rhetorically misleading and should not be used. A child who has been raped will be different from a child who has not been raped, but is *still a child*.
Specifically, you said:
There's also this idea that childhood is a time of innocence, play, and exploration, and early confrontation with adults in decidedly adult situations (rape is one, war is another) irrevocably ends childhood.
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chiming
Re: just thinking out loud...
Date: 2008-06-26 04:33 pm (UTC)From:Unless you literally mean it turns a child into an adult, the claim that it "ends" childhood is meaningless and rhetorically misleading and should not be used. A child who has been raped will be different from a child who has not been raped, but is *still a child*.
Specifically, you said:
There's also this idea that childhood is a time of innocence, play, and exploration, and early confrontation with adults in decidedly adult situations (rape is one, war is another) irrevocably ends childhood.
Which I think is nonsense.