Sunday, March 20, 2005

Revenge of the JAPs

"BEFORE PARIS HILTON made a career of flaunting her daddy's money, before Carrie Bradshaw transformed Manolo Blahnik from a shoe into a raison d'etre, even before Madonna unabashedly asserted herself as a Material Girl, there was the Jewish-American Princess. First identified in postwar America, the JAP was a girl lavished with the best in life-from the top of her professionally straightened mane of hair, to the nose job she got for her 16th birthday, to a wardrobe of designer clothes and the most expensive shoes money could buy. The entitled, shallow JAP may have been sexually frigid, but as a stereotype she proved remarkably promiscuous, spreading quickly and burrowing deep in the national psyche.
By the 1980s, the JAP had gone from being a quirky ethnic sketch to the presumed identity of nearly every Jewish woman, a trend that reeked of anti-Semitism and misogyny. Galvanized by a slew of incidents at college campuses-including anti-JAP graffiti, ''Biggest JAP on Campus'' contests, and housing ads that warned ''No JAPs''-Jewish feminists and other community leaders launched a successful campaign to scour the term from public discourse."


Interesting article Alana Newhouse writes for the Boston Globe...
Then later in the article:

"But not everyone thinks the revival of the stereotype is harmless fun. Given the noxious ideas about Jews and money, many feel uneasy about making the celebration of consumerism into a Jewish affair."


I wonder what tipped her off to write about this...
:)

Credit to Jmerica.
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