He said 'A lifetime of disingenuous, one-size-fits-all praise had kept most of my peers from pushing hard to achieve any actual triumphs, and therefore we had no internal sense of ability or potential.' The metaphor has been used positively with students to celebrate their individuality (and teamwork). Rather he was consciously reacting against the constant praise he had encountered in the education system, which he said had rendered him an 'idiot' and poorly equipped him for the world. In a short essay for Entertainment Weekly, Palahniuk later clarified that while writing the novel in 1994, he did not intend 'snowflake' to be an insult, and said it had nothing to do with fragility or sensitivity. Palahniuk's claim to have coined the term has been questioned. In January 2017, Palahniuk directly claimed credit, adding that young adults of the 2010s exhibit 'a kind of new Victorianism'. The 1999 film adaptation also includes this line. Pejorative reference to uniquenessĬhuck Palahniuk has often been credited with originating the modern pejorative use of 'snowflake' in his 1996 novel Fight Club, which contains the quote: 'you are not special, you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake'. In the 1970s, according to Green's Dictionary of Slang, snowflake has been used to describe 'a white person or a black person who was perceived as acting too much like a white person'. This usage was not believed to have extended beyond the state of Missouri in the 1800s. The term referred to the color of snow, referring to valuing white people over black people. In the 1860s, 'snowflake' was used by abolitionists in Missouri to refer to those who opposed the abolition of slavery. Most usages of 'snowflake' make reference to the physical qualities of snowflakes, such as their unique structure or fragility, while a minority of usages make reference to the white color of snow. It is popularly believed that every snowflake has a unique structure. 2.3 'Generation Snowflake': reference to enhanced sensitivity.

Flake meaning slang