Jamal Awil

← Doppelganger

Cultural battles over children hinge on whether they are independent people or parental extensions. [connection]

So many of the battles waged in the Mirror World—the "anti-woke" laws, the "don't say gay" bills, the blanket bans on gender-affirming medical care, the school board wars over vaccines and masks—come down to the same question: What are children for? Are they their own people, and our job, as parents, is to support and protect them as they find their paths? Or are they our appendages, our extensions, our spin-offs, our doubles, to shape and mold and ultimately benefit from?

QUESTION: This frames a deep moral question worth exploring: how does a society's answer about children's personhood shape its policy debates?

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, loc. 647