MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Since it is seen as a time period or stage of life that precedes socialization, childhood is often viewed as a state of being that exists outside of the human. Therefore children frequently get associated with non-human qualities such as savagery or unearthly innocence in popular culture. This panel will explore connections between children and other non-human identity categories such as the monstrous, the animalistic, and disability in order to consider the implications such associations have in American culture.