Today alone I have visited 478 bedrooms. I have always wondered why it is that children lose more teeth in the summer. Without fail, July and August are always my busiest months. I’ve noticed that kids are rowdier and more reckless when they’re on vacation from school for too long ¹. I don’t doubt that this has something to do with their constantly loosening teeth. In fact, I’ve heard of children deliberately jumping from their 10-foot high playsets, for instance, because they think they can fly. As you can imagine, this most often results in some daredevil little kid having fewer teeth than they did before they hit the ground. Or, sometimes, brainless children will walk face–first into a screen door, consequently bawling their eyes out and holding a tooth or two in their hands. 

Whatever the reason is for all of these loosening teeth, I think we tooth fairies can agree that humans are silly, confusing creatures. The very fact that they invite us into their homes—let alone their children’s bedrooms—should tell us just how foolish they can be. Do they ever stop to wonder where it is that we come from? Or, even, why it is that we’re in this tooth taking business in the first place? I would wager that not one of them could tell you that our work can be traced centuries back to Norse tradition. We weren’t so cute then with our intricate wings and delicate features. In fact, as you know, this body is relatively new to us. For the longest time, we were simply a concept. When parents believed that their children could become possessed by way of their teeth, they would shudder at the sight of a loose tooth only a few days away from falling out. And so, panic–stricken mothers and fathers disposed of their children’s teeth as quickly as possible. Then, it was thought that some otherworldly thing would handle the tooth from there⁴. Clearly there was some idea that we existed, but certainly not in the form that humans have imagined for us today. 

It would probably shock today’s parents to learn that their children’s precious teeth were once thought to be vessels for evil spirits. Do you remember a time when parents would feverishly dispose of their children’s teeth so as to ward off such spirits? The ground and the streams were littered with baby teeth, and smoke filled the air from fireplaces burning the ones that were not discarded outside; mothers were suspicious of their neighbors, accusing them of being witches that were going to steal their children’s teeth. I remember, centuries ago, one family in particular who misplaced their son’s tooth. For the couple of hours before they found it, his parents were so terrified of him becoming possessed by some evil spirit that they locked him in his room. It was a time of chaos and anxiety. Sometimes the monster in me can’t help but miss those anxiety–laden days. Today, children who have just lost a tooth are celebrated! I suppose people now think of it as some sort of important milestone. A loose tooth once summoned panic; now, it’s just another thrilling step toward adulthood. 

I don’t think that many of us are aware that we tooth fairies² first began to take form in popular culture as cute animals, like birds or mice, who would take away the baby teeth tucked under a child’s pillow while they peacefully slept. Parents no longer have to dig through the dirt or light their teeth burning fires, and children are not unnecessarily and hastily locked up in their rooms every time a tooth is lost. Peace has been restored because we were turned into inoffensive—even lovable—little critters that few parents would mind having close to their child. How convenient for them. I’m not surprised by this. Those humans always get to have everything just the way they like it. We exist only as they want us to. Imagine for a moment that Santa Claus was not a jolly old man with rosy cheeks and a round belly, but just some ordinary saint. Would people still welcome him into their homes and accept his gifts for their children? Or, what if the kappa in Japan more closely resembled the human–drowning–water–monster that it once was, as opposed to the adorable frog that it has since become? Would they still appear as much as they do now in popular culture? 

These are the questions that I ask myself as I fly to my 479th bedroom of the day. I am not enjoying this. My wings are throbbing, my feet ache from all of the tiptoeing I have to do through each bedroom that I visit, and my cheeks are tired from this ridiculous smile plastered across my face. I’ve passed hundreds of fellow tooth fairies today, and we all look the same. Not one of us has a hair out of place, or a set of wings that are any less beautiful than the last. But if you take the time to look a moment longer, you’ll undoubtedly see the pain and fatigue in their eyes. It’s degrading, quite frankly. Gone are the days when humans were so frantic that their bodies would ache as they ran in and out of the house carrying cursed teeth in their dirt covered hands. Now, they’ve become despicably lazy. I envy those of us who have stayed monsters. Humans are still terrified of Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil, for instance. Do you remember how thrilling it once was to instill such fear in people? Instead, we’ve been given wings and a pretty smile to make children less afraid⁵. 

Children are so unafraid, in fact, that they will deliberately pull their teeth out just so that we will pay them a visit! Some kids will go so far as to tie their loose tooth to a door, which their own mother or father will then slam shut, yanking the tooth out of their mouth. How vulgar and demeaning! On one particularly tiring night, I tried to test exactly how unafraid these children really have become. There I was, flying gracefully through the window of a bedroom, as we tooth fairies do, when the kid opened his eyes and spotted me. At first, I froze, unsure of what to do. Should I leave and not risk him getting a closer look? Or should I take this as an opportunity to turn what had been a boring night into an exciting one for the first time in a long time? And so, I tried, unsuccessfully, to contort my frozen smile into a frown. Do you know what that rotten kid did? He laughed! Can you believe that? And then, he reached under his pillow for his tooth and tossed it to me. I was so startled that all I could manage to do was mumble a “thank you” in response. I thanked him! The very idea of me once made people tremble, and now I put smiles on children’s faces. 

I attended the graduation ceremony at Kappa University of Kappa Universal Knowledge last week, and I’m sure that Dr. Gamishiro-Kawappa-Garappa would have a lot of opinions about my grievances. I was looking forward to the commencement speech, particularly because I’ve always felt an allegiance to kappa. Like us and so many others, they have transformed significantly over the years. They too have gone from monster to friend. So, you can imagine how surprised I was when I didn’t hear anything remotely similar to what I feel toward those contemptible and selfish humans. Granted, Dr. Gamishiro-Kawappa-Garappa did rightfully give us monsters credit for our resilience in the face of these ever-changing times, and for that I am grateful. However, the historian and theorist praised their fellow kappa for having done whatever it took to appease the humans and remain relevant in their imagination. To my ears, that sounds like a compromise of their identity. I don’t doubt the hard work that the kappa have done, but in my opinion, this is a disgrace to monsters everywhere. We should not settle for how humans view us, let alone celebrate it! People need to be more afraid. It’s time for us to reclaim our monster identities. I sense a tooth fairy uprising on the horizon. 

Reflection

“A Kappa Manifesto” was my favorite reading that we did all semester. I found it to be a playful, fun text, but also valuable for the thought that it gives to the ways in which yokai are constantly transforming to accommodate and appease humans. It almost felt posthumanist in the sense that it decenters the human and gives a voice to the monster who is actually the one in control. When I was considering what to do for my creative project, I was sure that I wanted to somehow use this text because I enjoyed it so much. So, I began by considering what sorts of creatures we have in America that are similar to the concept of yokai in Japan. In one of our class discussions, someone mentioned the tooth fairy, which made me wonder where it is that the tooth fairy comes from and whether it has taken a trajectory similar to that of the kappa. 

As I briefly mentioned in my tooth fairy manifesto, it was believed in Norse tradition³ that evil spirits would possess people via their teeth and hair. Consequently, when someone would lose a tooth, it would be buried in the ground, thrown in a stream, or even burned as quickly as possible. On the other hand, however, Vikings were less afraid of teeth and would even wear them around their necks for good luck in battle. I chose to focus mostly on the fear because I found that to be most relevant and beneficial to the goal of my project. I also learned that the first and closest resemblance to the tooth fairy that we have today was a mouse in a French fairy tale. It eventually made its way to America and became popular especially with the help of Walt Disney. Today, children are excited to lose their teeth because it means a visit from the tooth fairy, as opposed to the fear that loose teeth once triggered. I, personally, can remember especially looking forward to the dollar that I would wake up to under my pillow. 

I found the way in which the tooth fairy was conceptualized to be similar to the transformation that the kappa—and various other yokai—have undergone. So, I finally landed on writing something from the perspective of a tooth fairy and modeled off of “A Kappa Manifesto.” Originally, my idea was that my tooth fairy manifesto would take on a similar tone to that of the kappa manifesto. I wanted to make the tooth fairy into this clever creature that has allowed humans to think that they are the ones in control, when in reality, it is the tooth fairy that is manipulative and calculated. I planned on doing this by imagining that tooth fairies have accepted the changes that they have gone through because it has allowed them to remain relevant in this human-centered world. Similar to the kappa, even though the tooth fairy does operate within the parameters defined by humans, they are doing so by choice. However, as I began writing, I started to ask myself, “Is this idea really enough to sustain the tooth fairy? What are they really getting out of all of this?” 

The more I considered these questions, the more I realized that the tooth fairy had every right to be fed up with us humans. And so, I decided that this was a more appropriate approach to my tooth fairy manifesto. In addition, I felt more excited about this idea than my initial thoughts because it felt more original and less like a copy of “A Kappa Manifesto.” This is also why I reference the kappa manifesto in my own piece because I wanted this tooth fairy to explicitly disagree with it. 

My objective then became to provide an alternative perspective than the one that “A Kappa Manifesto” offers. As opposed to a proud kappa who wishes to celebrate their achievements as a species, I created a bitter and resentful tooth fairy whose purpose is to give a voice to these feelings. I wanted to give the tooth fairy an opportunity to air out all of their grievances. I also hoped that this sort of approach would contribute to the overall playful tone of the manifesto. I think it is slightly amusing to imagine a sweet and harmless looking creature like the tooth fairy having so much pent-up anger. In the hopes of the whole piece not being too serious or intense, I added in some silly encounters and anecdotes that an aggrieved tooth fairy might experience. Overall, I had a lot of fun writing the manifesto and creating this character, and I hope that that comes across in the text itself. 

Works Cited

“A Kappa Manifesto.” Translated by Michael Dylan Foster

Gray, Kyrie. “The Unexpectedly Dark History of the Tooth Fairy.” Medium, https://medium.com/@kyriegray3/the-unexpectedly-dark-history-of-the-tooth-fairy-d3d013ffe558. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024. 

Killgrove, Kristina. “Where Did The Tooth Fairy Come From?” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/09/14/where-did-the-tooth-fairy-come-from/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024. 

Saunders, Michèle J. “A Small Trip Through Tooth Lore, or Where Did the Tooth Fairy Come From?” Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, vol. 40, no. 3, 2016, pp. 16–18. JSTOR. 

Footnotes