infantilization

Definitions

The act or process of infantilizing, treating a non-infant as an infant, or more generally treating an adult like a young child.

countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Nursing homes lead⟳ to an infantilization of the elderly.”

“In both cases, a key ingredient has been the drastic infantilization of the national culture: from the pious idea of ‘family reading’ that launched the Bowdlerization of Victorian literature, to the syrupy replica—the family, smiling at its TV—that has put⟳ American entertainment to sleep⟳.”

“In the context of asexuality, it has led to the infantilization of people who are aspec, and in a lot of cases has pressured ace people to have⟳ sex, simply because they didn’t think⟳ not wanting to have⟳ sex was an option.”

CEFR level