1 Childhood Innocence: Essence, Education and Performativity Introduction Representations of childhood innocence in modern societies have been identified by scholars as complex moral and epistemological operations, though they appear to be merely a descriptive discourse and attest to the expression in the child of a natural and timeless essence. Baird, for example, writes of a ‘child fundamentalism’ in contemporary society, with appeals to childhood serving as a nearly unassailable form of authoritative political and social discourse, mobilised all too often to defend sectional interests. 1 Gordon notes that representations of childhood innocence have had a tendency to be used to support a conservative social agenda, though they give a certain degree of authority to women as mothers and protection to some children. Poor, illegitimate and non-white children, and women outside of traditional roles, are thereby constructed as morally aberrant and not worthy of social or material resources. 2 Egan and Hawkes and Faulkner have expressed concern that discourses of innocence, despite seeming to be calls for protection for all children, are in fact used to regulate the national population. These discourses make child sexuality a source of medical and moral concern. They note that social interventions made in the name of innocence more often than not result in the protection of the idea of childhood, rather than helping children to live and flourish. 3 These scholars have each called for further critical work on the topic of childhood innocence. In response to these calls, my aim in this text is to offer a social theoretical account of discourses of childhood innocence. The protection for the vulnerable demanded by innocence discourses can be of immense social benefit. However it may be attainable by other means. Discourses of childhood innocence seem to have an unimpeachable moral status. Yet scrutiny of these discourses indicates that they should in fact be regarded as a potentially exclusionary form of social practice, linked to little-acknowledged and problematic social effects. I will begin by examining the vivid utopian/dystopian depictions of Frank Wedekind’s text Mine-Haha. 4 This text