Sexy Jewish Stereotypes
by: Joshua Stanton on December 3rd, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Photo courtesy of Mirah Curzer
For thousands of years, we Jews have been ruthlessly stereotyped as cheap, ugly people with large noses and small hearts. Just see some of the art produced since the Seleucid Era! But over the past couple of decades, America has begun to embrace its Jewish population — now apparently quite literally.
A friend of mine, herself an attractive Jewess, forwarded along an article from the popular Details Magazine entitled “Rise of the Hot Jewish Girl: Why American Men are Lusting After Women of the Tribe.” (Just to warn those faint of heart or under the age of 18, this is certainly not an understated piece.) Here is one of the few ‘mild’ excerpts I could find:
That Jewish women have become the ethnic fetish du jour is all the more remarkable given that Jews represent a truly tiny minority (2.2 percent) of the U.S. population. In recent years, God’s chosen menfolk have been objects of affection, too, though they draw their appeal from cuddly schlubbiness, not sexual energy – consider Judd Apatow’s all-Jewish Frat Pack (Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, et al.). But unlike their funnyman brothers, Jewish girls have had to overcome the old stinging JAP stereotype of frigidity, whininess, and big hair.
Though perhaps unexpected, and certainly one-dimensional, being called “sexy” is clearly preferable to any of the unpleasant epithets Jews have endured over the past two millenia.
I hate the word sexy – why not “attractive,” “beautiful” or sometning like that- sexy sounds whorish.
Also, it is sad enough that “sexy” got equated with “blond long straight hair”, i.e., the Ubermensch symbol of Hitler, and it is even sadder that Jewish women dye ther hair blond so to be “sexier”.
If not “sexy,” how about “passionworthy”?
I don’t care if that is a picture of a Jewess, or a Methodist — she looks like a tramp. Why not photograph someone who captures the understated elegance of “the Tribe.?”
Fellow Bloggers,
Just a couple of words of clarification about this post. First, the article in Details Magazine was explicitly sexual — hence my choice of the title of this article. Second, the picture in the post above is actually not from the initial piece in Details Magazine, as I was afraid of engaging in copyright infringement. Instead, the photo featured above was taken by representatives of Mirah Curzer Photography at a fashion show in New York. It is unclear whether the model featured is or is not Jewish. I merely needed a photo that would complement the blog post, which Mirah Curzer Photography was kind enough to offer. I do apologize for any confusion or angst its inclusion may have caused.
All the best,
Josh
Ah, the perils of blogging. Thanks for the explanation. I’m glad you started this conversation and it’s good to see where it goes. I would have written my reply post today (http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2009/12/08/sexy-jewish-stereotypes-questions/) a little differently if I had known she wasn’t supposed to be an example of Jewish womanhood, but the confusion is all grist for thinking about this mystery of sexuality.