Anti-Tiger Mother Stamp

This is a response to Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a 240-page tract on how she thinks Chinese are better parents than Americans. (I know she wrote it three years ago, but she recently appeared in a documentary, along with some wacko mom who's raising her son without a gender.) In it, she glowingly describes how she treats her daughters, doing delightful things such as calling them garbage, threatening to burn her daughter's stuffed animals if she didn't play The Little White Donkey correctly. and forcing her daughters to practice violin and piano for hours, even on weekends and holidays. Her daughters have virtually no friends and aren't allowed to go to parties. They have to get straight A's in every subject and aren't allowed to watch TV or play video games (they're too busy practicing piano and violin. She doesn't even let them choose their own extracurricular activities! Throughout the book, she uses the fact that she's Chinese (she's a first-generation Chinese-American) to justify her parenting style.

Chua's parenting styles are definitely not par for the course for Chinese parents. I've heard of ones who pressure their kids a lot in academics or stuff like that, but Chua goes overboard by basically forcing them to be robots - doing the same thing every day and not complaining. (Her younger daughter Lulu was the one doing most of the complaining. I'm willing to bet she'll write a tell-all on her mother when she is able to break free of her iron fist. Sadly, the older daughter's just like her mother.)

To be quite honest, I feel bad for these girls. Their mother basically controls their lives. As for Chua herself, not only does she sound like a raving lunatic. she also plays into stereotypes of Asians. Really, this "model minority" stereotype needs to die - just because it's a "positive" stereotype, doesn't mean it can't be damaging. This particular stereotype encourages people to be racist towards Asians. As for her daughters, they are at risk for depression, as children with tiger mothers are more likely to develop depression, anxiety, and poor social skills - and to top it all off, aggression.

In her newest book, she basically gloats about how certain groups (namely Jewish, Chinese, Nigerian, and a few others) are better parents because they are "stricter". (Her husband is Jewish, BTW.) I hope it doesn't get popular. I'm sick of books that claim that people from certain cultures make better parents than others. After all, in this country we have a long, ugly history of demonizing black mothers. There was also another shitty-ass book called French Kids Don't Talk Back. Aren't the French already sick of Brits and Americans acting patronizing towards them?

People have hurled racial slurs at Chua, threatened to get her arrested for child abuse, and even sent her death threats. Honestly, I think jail would do her good. Actually, she needs a one-way ticket to a mental hospital.

Whatever you do, do not buy Amy Chua's book (unless you want a good laugh), and do not believe that her parenting is normal in any way.