infantilization

• infantilisation (Non-Oxford British)

infantilize +‎ -ation

infantilization (countable and uncountable, plural infantilizations)

1. The act or process of infantilizing, or treating a non-infant as an infant.

   Nursing homes lead to an infantilization of the elderly.

   • 2013, Franco Moretti, “[Introduction: Concepts and Contradictions] ‘The bourgeois is lost . . .’”, in The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature, London, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Verso, published 2014, →ISBN, page 23:

     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.

   • 2020 February 4, “Asexuality, Explained Through Cake”, in The Link‎, retrieved 6 April 2020:

     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.