Understandings of Pedophilization, Adultification, and Eroticization in Contemporary Childhoods: An Interview with Jane Felipe

Abstract

This interview with Jane Felipe traces nearly three decades of academic work at the intersection of early childhood education, gender, and sexuality, focusing on the concepts of pedophilization, erotization, and adultization in contemporary childhoods. The interviewee reconstructs the genealogy of the concept of pedophilization, from its initial formulation in the 1990s within the GEERGE/UFRGS research group to its gradual theoretical consolidation as an analytical category that connects the erotic exposure of children's bodies, the naturalization of harassment, and forms of gender-based violence. The cultural, media, and digital conditions sustaining these processes are examined, alongside the need for conceptual precision in distinguishing them without resorting to moralizing or oversimplified readings. The interview also addresses the challenges of teacher education and the role of the school as part of a broader protective network capable of informing and safeguarding children.