Hyper-Aggressive Parenting: 25 Snow Whites, No Dwarfs and No Witch

Posted by Alex in Baby & Kids on June 8, 2008 at 1:45 pm


It’s not fair that one girl gets to play Snow White, Japanese parents pressured teachers, so the school decided to modify the play slightly: 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch!

Actually, the "25 Snow Whites" play is part of a new trend of hyper-aggressive parentings in Japan and may signal a transformation in the basic character of a Japanese society:

Across Japan teachers are reporting an astonishing change in the character of parents, who, after decades of respectful silence, have become a super-aggressive army of complainers. The problem is that nobody can decide whether this is a good thing or not. Japan’s mass media has opted to demonise them: a lavish television drama starting next month will present the monster parents as a vile symptom of a society that has lost all respect for its traditions and decorum. [...]

Within the category of monster parent Professor Morotomi identifies the most potent strain: the “teacher hunters”, who conspire in small groups to ensure that a particular teacher is dismissed. Occasionally, he said, this involves physically mobbing their victim at the school gates and screaming abuse until a letter of resignation is signed on the spot.

“The monsters are created in family restaurants and coffee shops — places where the mothers meet each other to talk and relax,” said Professor Morotomi. “Simple chats spiral into ‘emergency meetings’… the conversation becomes more emotional and radical and suddenly what began as a simple complaint becomes a monsterised army of parents.” The sudden switch marks what many believe is the symptom of deeper social troubles at the heart of Japan, a transformation that took root during Japan’s long economic downturn of the 1990s and whose effects have only now erupted.

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17 comments to "Hyper-Aggressive Parenting: 25 Snow Whites, No Dwarfs and No Witch"

  1. Peaches
    June 8th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

    This reminds me of what happened at my school.
    The parents (and even some of the teachers) were really angry at the Principal, so they kept complaining to the board and he actually got fired! He'd only been at the school for 2 and a half school years.
    I don't feel bad for him. I didn't like him all that much.

  2. Evilbeagle
    June 8th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    This is just a sad, sad thing. Parenting is such a joke these days with the loser getting a trophy too, and now 25 Snow Whites. This generation is going to grow up to be soft and pathetic, and not just in Japan, but in the UK and the US too.

  3. Davves
    June 8th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    So what happened to the boys who wanted to be a dwarf?

    The really sad thing about this is that the school actually did it. Here's the thing it's not fair for one girl to be the main character so they decided to make all the girls the main character thus rending said main character a minor character, no more main character for anyone.

  4. Tony LaRocca
    June 8th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    They think they're protecting their kids, but it's going to hurt the kids when they enter the real world and find no one is giving them trophies and hugs to celebrate their mediocrity.

  5. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 8th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

    I'll bet that was one boring play. How can you have a plot without a villain? What did all these Snow Whites do? Just stand around on stage?

  6. ted
    June 8th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    They probably sang and danced around a little. I think it's a cool concept, but for all the wrong reasons.

  7. Miss Cellania
    June 8th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    Reading the article, the Snow White story sounds like an urban legend. The school isn't named, no quotes, and it's not the story, it's just an intro to the story.

  8. gibson8or
    June 8th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

    Children need to be taught that they have to work for rewards. Feelings of entitlement in children create greedy and cruel adults.

  9. Lea
    June 8th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    This happens in america all the time. We call them helicopter parents.

    Here's an idea.
    Try common sense for once.

  10. Barbwire
    June 8th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

    My daughter was thrilled to death to be the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. She felt it was a much meatier part than bland Dorothy. Another year, the youngest was a Munchkin. That's life.

  11. Parker
    June 8th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Yeah parents seem prouder of their boring kids than previous generations. My parents never thought I was extraordinary enough to bully teachers into giving me what I wanted even when I showed some skill. And I turned out to actually not expect things to go my way..how about that? My mother also worked and wasn't bored enough or had the time to conspire with other mothers to make a teacher's life hell even if she wanted to.

  12. Joel Falconer
    June 9th, 2008 at 12:51 am

    It was only a matter of time before these poisonous American attitudes spread to other societies

  13. Larry
    June 9th, 2008 at 7:29 am

    That's right!
    All these countries had perfectly reasonable cultures until America starting infecting the rest of the world with it's putrid influence!
    I don't know about you, but sometimes I wake up in the morning and scream, "Why me!? Why was I born AMERICAN!?

  14. Thomas
    June 9th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Its just cultural lag. New ideas spread faster than the rational responses to them.

  15. smak
    June 9th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    Larry, I hope you're joking. Otherwise, you're just as pathetic as these parents' children.

    There are plenty of toxic cross-cultural influences out there. The greatest forced proliferation of Western culture came via the sword and the gun and thanks to the Spanish, Dutch, French, Portuguese and English empires.

    So before you start complaining about how horrid America's influence is, I remind you that America's influence in the world is largely voluntarily cultural; nobody's forcing McDonald's on anyone.

  16. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 10th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    "America’s influence in the world is largely voluntarily cultural; nobody’s forcing McDonald’s on anyone"

    That's probably debatable. Especially the "voluntarily" part. If McDonald's restaurants spring up all over Iraq, will you still be sticking to the "voluntarily" argument?

    As far as how it relates to this story, I don't know if it's really American influence at all. I thought Japan had a highly competitive society anyway. This is just taken to the extreme: parents competing to make their child #1 (even if everyone else's child is also #1).

  17. Evilbeagle
    June 10th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    It used to be El Niño. Now everyone blames Americans. What a cop out. When I'm at the Liverpool Street Station, that McDonald's is heaving every time. Funny that, and this American hasn't set foot in a fast food place in the two years she's lived in the UK.


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