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00:00Now, I'm Jewish. I'm from New York, and perhaps exotic to some of you.
00:05Jewish Americans have created some of the world's most beloved movies and shows,
00:10so it might be surprising that when it comes to on-screen representation,
00:14Jewish characters are often reduced to stereotypes.
00:17Jewish women especially tend to fall into a few well-trodden character types,
00:21the overbearing and hypocritical mother.
00:24Oh, honey, I think I liked you better with your hair straighter.
00:27The gossiping yenta.
00:28I have such news for you, and not every day in the week news, once in a lifetime news.
00:35Or the wealthy, well-educated young woman obsessed with her money, looks,
00:40and finding a rich guy to support the comfortable lifestyle she's used to.
00:45In other words, the Jewish American princess.
00:48What's up, my hot little Jewish American princess?
00:50The phrase Jewish American princess, or Jap, as we'll say in this video,
00:54is traditionally a derogatory term applied to a certain kind of upper or upper-middle-class Jewish American young woman.
01:01But it's one of the most complex and controversial Jewish stereotypes,
01:05which has sometimes been acknowledged and claimed by female Jewish creators.
01:10It usually involves a character from a place with a large Jewish community, like New York City or its suburbs.
01:19Now we'll see whose bars will prevail.
01:21In this beef up too hard as nails, she brews from Scarsdale!
01:24She's typically highly educated, an example of an achievement-oriented so-called model minority.
01:30In the past, that achievement likely centered on finding a successful husband.
01:34Joel Maisel was my knight in shining armor, a gift from God.
01:40While increasingly today, the character may be a hyper-achiever in her own profession.
01:45Most of all, the Jap is privileged.
01:47And then for Hanukkah, my parents got me this pair of really expensive white gold hoops.
01:52And she's often cast as spoiled because she lives off daddy's money,
01:56indulged by her parents and looking for a suitable husband to provide for her
02:00in the manner to which she's accustomed.
02:03Excuse me? You're broke?
02:06Uh, yeah, super broke. Are you upset about that?
02:09Hmm, yeah, because I don't F with Porsies.
02:11If we look deeper, though, the materialism that's projected onto this character
02:15is more than a little sexist, and it reflects pressures on a long-othered minority group
02:21to assimilate and rise in the American social hierarchy.
02:24My grandfather came from Russia, and now we have a store on Fifth Avenue.
02:28Recently, Jewish creators have interrogated the complexities of the Jap identity
02:32in an effort to reclaim the term.
02:34Jewish-American princess, a term that on one hand does reinforce negative,
02:39negative stereotypes about both Jews and women,
02:42but on the other hand is a term that we want to reclaim and own.
02:45But is that fully possible when this stereotype has long been used
02:49as a cautionary tale one tries to avoid being?
02:52I'm not a Jap.
02:53Or a vehicle for someone else around her to learn a lesson?
02:57Here's our take on the role this complicated character plays in film and TV,
03:01and how Jewish representation on screen can move beyond the stereotypes.
03:05If you're new here, be sure to subscribe and click the bell
03:14to get notified about all our new videos.
03:17The Jap stereotype first gained ground in American popular culture after World War II,
03:27as upwardly mobile, middle-class American Jews who felt established in the country
03:31still struggled to prove that they had acclimated to everyday American life.
03:36The assimilation of American Jews was conditional.
03:39They had long been othered in American society.
03:41What I'm saying is, Chanel is a very different kind of place.
03:45It's French, it's continental, it's...
03:49Not just another Jewish department store?
03:51Exactly.
03:51Wealth, conspicuous consumption, or high-status education were positive tokens
03:56that allowed them to show off their American-ness and claim a place in the social hierarchy.
04:01I'm American, I'm really not very Jewish.
04:04But as mainstream, middle-class life became increasingly connected to the image of the suburbs
04:09and the purchase of home goods, some Jews felt that American Jewish culture
04:13was becoming too materialistic.
04:15Jewish writers like Philip Roth and Herman Woke connected this materialism to women,
04:20likely because housewives were the target demographic of commercial goods in the 1950s and 60s.
04:25Woke's 1955 novel Marjorie Morningstar and Roth's 1959 anthology Goodbye Columbus
04:31are early examples of a Jewish man confronting a Jewish American princess.
04:35Now what are you accusing me of?
04:36You are guilty of some things, Brenda.
04:38In Goodbye Columbus, Brenda is of a higher socioeconomic class than Neil,
04:43and the tension between Neil's working-class lifestyle
04:46and Brenda's family's new money sensibilities tears the young couple apart.
04:50You want to know what my plans are for the future?
04:53I'm not planning anything.
04:55Besides, I'm not a planner, I'm a liver.
04:58Throughout the 20th century, the image of the Jap was perpetuated through comedy
05:02by Jewish creators and entertainers.
05:04I am Princess Vespa, daughter of Roland,
05:07King of the Druids.
05:09That's all we needed.
05:11A Druish princess.
05:13Jewish comedian Gilda Radner summed up the character in her 1980 Saturday Night Live parody
05:19of a Jordache Jeans commercial, Jewess Jeans.
05:21She's got designer nails and a designer nose.
05:26She's the Jewess in Jewess Jeans.
05:30The Jap came to be portrayed with certain visual cues.
05:34Frizzy hair, a large nose that she may have surgically altered,
05:37and designer clothes and handbags.
05:40In keeping with her attempts to assimilate,
05:41the Jap reflects a more secular version of Jewish culture,
05:44and often Jap characters are only implied to be Jewish.
05:48Share Horowitz?
05:49Or their Jewish culture is referred to only subtly.
05:52That's my puppy!
05:54Perhaps the most key element of portrayals of the Jewish American princess
05:57is her money, which often comes from her father or her husband.
06:01Come on, you can't live off your parents your whole life.
06:04I know that.
06:05That's why I was getting married.
06:07The Jap is rich, as well as often portrayed as knowing the value of a good bargain.
06:11I do my nails, read up on sales all day.
06:15Thus reinforcing broader stereotypes about Jews and money.
06:19It's a great deal for Nalita.
06:21I mean, $2,100 a month?
06:22Amaze.
06:23It's a little more expensive than the dorms,
06:25but Aunt Eileen thinks it's like the perfect bachelorette pad.
06:27Roth's writing, and later characterizations alike,
06:30were addressing concerns of classism and consumer culture,
06:33but these critiques were complicated by the fact that they had an air of misogyny.
06:38The Jap came across as a tool to criticize not American materialism in general,
06:42but Jewish women's materialism specifically.
06:46Do for me, buy for me, lift me, carry me.
06:50Finally got a guy to marry me.
06:53The sexism and anti-Semitism intertwined with portrayals of the Jap were accepted,
06:58because many of these often damaging on-screen characterizations
07:02were created by Jewish entertainers, usually men.
07:05So this let non-Jewish audiences feel this was an inside joke,
07:09it was okay to laugh at, sort of like the caveat of
07:12it's okay, I'm Jewish, after an iffy comment.
07:15Money, please!
07:19Jamie Lauren Kalis writes about the Jap for Vox.
07:22At worst, she is the ever-haunting spirit of the Jewish nouveau riche,
07:25as it tries to find its place in the American class system.
07:29At best, she performs her own kind of Jewish drag,
07:32reclaiming the anti-Semitic tropes of yore
07:34as a positive ideal of Jewish womanhood.
07:37Meanwhile, alongside the materialistic new money identity of the Jap,
07:41versions of the Jap also reflected long-standing positive values
07:45of the Jewish community,
07:46like an emphasis on education, achievement,
07:49and being a notable community contributor.
07:51Once it gets dark, I hand out the candles
07:53and we do what's called a speechless protest.
07:55We put tape over our mouths
07:56gather hand-in-hand in a sea of outraged silence.
08:00Rachel Bloom's crazy ex-girlfriend
08:02examines a modern iteration of the Jap,
08:05who can be an extremely industrious,
08:07driven, self-possessed,
08:08and professional overachiever.
08:10I put the OG in 5.0 GPA!
08:14Still, Bloom's character Rebecca Bunch
08:17has internalized and continues to exhibit
08:19some of the less modern stereotypical aspects of the trope,
08:23like her privilege, entitlement,
08:25and the idea that settling down with a man should come first.
08:28Today, I'm going to declare my love to a prince,
08:32and it's going to be oh so romantic.
08:34While Rebecca is too successful to need
08:36to rely on any man for money,
08:38she upends her life in pursuit of love
08:40and subconsciously seems to base her entire self-acceptance
08:44on the need for male validation.
08:46So you're saying that I moved here from New York
08:48and I left behind a job
08:49that would have paid me $545,000 a year
08:51for a guy who still skateboards.
08:53The Jap is also inseparable from another stereotype
08:56she's destined to turn into,
08:59the Jewish mother,
09:00widely portrayed as both excessively loving
09:03and hypercritical.
09:05By the way you're looking healthy,
09:08and by healthy I mean chunky.
09:09Calus sees the Jap as a response
09:11to the nagging, overbearing Jewish mother,
09:14whose image was designed to absorb
09:16the stigmas of the old world.
09:18Her inverse, the Jap, was entitled and withholding,
09:21designed to take blame for the stigmas of the new.
09:24Significantly, male authors have painted the Jap
09:26as sexually withholding,
09:28or using sex to manipulate men
09:30into settling down with her
09:31so that they will support her wealthy lifestyle
09:34and indulge her as her parents did.
09:36Given the inherent misogyny of the stereotype,
09:39could the Jap ever offer a nuanced discussion
09:42of class and consumerism
09:43in American Jewish culture and America in general?
09:51Some Japs break away from the confines of money
09:54and superficiality,
09:55embarking on a redemption arc
09:57that's not exactly riches to rags,
09:59but at least riches to middle-class clothes.
10:02Characters like Baby in Dirty Dancing
10:04and Rachel Green on Friends
10:05essentially demonstrate how not to be
10:07a stereotypical Jap,
10:09winning over the audience
10:10by proving their depth,
10:11self-sufficiency,
10:12and lack of materialism or class snobbery.
10:15Somebody who's taught me
10:16that there are people willing to stand up
10:18for other people,
10:19no matter what it costs them.
10:21On Friends,
10:22Rachel's Jewish identity
10:23is rarely referenced directly.
10:25Spin the dreidel, Rachel!
10:28But she enters the scene
10:30with all the quintessential Jap signifiers.
10:32She lives off her father's credit cards.
10:34And who pays for that?
10:36Um, my father.
10:38She's college educated,
10:39but has never had a job.
10:41I'm gonna go get one of those job things.
10:44She belonged to a sorority
10:45and was engaged to a man with a lucrative job.
10:48And she finds her pre-rhinoplasty look
10:51a source of both humor and embarrassment.
10:53What is with your nose?
10:57They had to reduce it
10:58because of my deviated septum.
11:00But over time,
11:01Rachel evolves into the anti-Jap.
11:03She works her way up from a waitress
11:05to a successful businesswoman
11:07who can support herself and a child.
11:09Look at you.
11:10You're this big executive.
11:12You are much more capable
11:13than you give yourself credit for.
11:15She finds both confidence and independence
11:17in her romantic relationships
11:19and is no longer defined
11:21by the men in her life.
11:22Rachel's autonomy serves as an inspiration
11:24in her family,
11:26while her sisters are the butt of jokes
11:28because they've failed
11:29to rise above the stereotype.
11:30Then he told me to come here
11:32and learn about the value of money
11:33from the one daughter
11:34he's actually proud of.
11:35Likewise,
11:36in 1987's Dirty Dancing,
11:38the Jewish protagonist Baby
11:39marks herself as the non-Jap of her story
11:42by being an idealist
11:43who sees beyond class divides.
11:45I'm sorry about the way
11:46my father treated you.
11:47She's contrasted
11:48with the other snobby
11:49summer vacationers
11:50of her demographic
11:51and, again,
11:52a sister who fits
11:53the Jap stereotype to a T.
11:55I should have brought
11:56those coral shoes.
11:57In both stories,
11:59these sisters serve
12:00the function of illustrating
12:01that Baby and Rachel
12:02are superior
12:03because they aspire
12:04to be independent women,
12:06don't see it
12:07as their highest calling
12:08to marry a rich doctor
12:09or orthodontist,
12:10and don't look down
12:12on people with less money.
12:13In examples like these,
12:15the Jap character's role
12:16is to show audiences
12:17or protagonists
12:18how to be better than her.
12:20Our baby's gonna change the world.
12:22And what are you gonna do, Missy?
12:24Elise is gonna decorate.
12:25Overall,
12:26filmmakers tend to use
12:27this archetype
12:28to teach someone a lesson,
12:29whether that's another character
12:31or the audience,
12:32usually about class,
12:33privilege,
12:34or snobbery.
12:35Baby becomes the teacher
12:36of open-mindedness
12:37to the classist upper-middle-class Jews
12:40in her society.
12:41You told me everyone was alike
12:42and deserved a fair break,
12:44but you meant everyone
12:45who was like you.
12:47Meanwhile,
12:47in the 1990s comedy series
12:49The Nanny,
12:50Jewish protagonist Fran Fine
12:52teaches high-society WASPs
12:54how to humanize Jewish Americans.
12:56As a matter of fact,
12:57you're not like anyone else
12:58I've ever met,
12:59which is not altogether
13:00a bad thing.
13:02Fran ticks many boxes
13:03of the stereotypical Jap.
13:05She's loudmouthed,
13:06dressed to the nines,
13:07and eager to marry well
13:08to appease
13:09her overbearing mother.
13:10But Fran isn't as wealthy
13:12as the traditional Jap,
13:13and when she's compared
13:14to the Sheffield family,
13:15she's almost déclassé.
13:17At least I'm not that broad
13:18over there,
13:19would you look at her?
13:22Desperate look in her eyes,
13:24boozing it up.
13:28Fran's Jewishness marks her
13:29as someone who can never fit in
13:31with their stoic sense of propriety.
13:33Oh boy,
13:33do you have gorgeous tchotchkes.
13:35Uh, thank your pardon?
13:38Oh, you know,
13:40you bric-a-brac,
13:40dust collectors.
13:41Ah, the rodin, yes.
13:43But her journey
13:44with the Sheffield family
13:45is less about her
13:46appreciating herself
13:47or coming into her own
13:49and more about
13:50teaching Maxwell
13:51and his children
13:52how to live a life
13:53that's a little less uptight
13:54and a little more freewheeling.
13:56You dolled her up
13:57and turned her into a-
13:58A young woman!
13:59She is going to grow up
14:00and somebody's gotta help her.
14:02In countless stories,
14:04the most fundamental lesson
14:06that the Jap character
14:07has to learn
14:07is to be less self-centered
14:09and pay more attention
14:10to the needs of others,
14:12a process which typically involves
14:13outgrowing her more
14:15typically Jap characteristics.
14:17I decided I needed
14:18a complete makeover,
14:20except this time
14:21I make over my soul.
14:23This might also involve
14:24facing the fact
14:25that she's privileged
14:26not only because of her money,
14:28but also because
14:29she's almost always white.
14:31The Jap is traditionally
14:32an Ashkenazi Jew,
14:33meaning of Eastern European heritage,
14:35and is powerful
14:36both because of her white privilege
14:38and in spite of her Jewishness.
14:40But I do know
14:41what it feels like
14:42to be out of place,
14:44to be disconnected,
14:46to see the whole world
14:48laid out in front of you
14:49the way other people live it.
14:50Often, stories about this character
14:52explore the class complexity
14:53of what it means
14:54to be both an othered minority
14:56and an affluent elite
14:58in our society.
14:59While it may be easy
15:00for the Jap to point
15:01to her minority status
15:02as proof that she relates
15:04to marginalized people in general,
15:05frequently the Jap story
15:14is about her becoming
15:15more cognizant
15:16of her advantaged position.
15:18All of my girlfriends
15:19and I used to throw the diamonds
15:20we got from our parents
15:21on a table
15:21and just do like
15:22a big jewelry swap.
15:24Numerous depictions
15:24of this character,
15:25old and new,
15:26force her to confront
15:28her privileged bubble.
15:29Lucy, you know
15:30I don't speak Mexican.
15:31I'm not the Mexican.
15:34Great, what was that all about?
15:35Lucy's from El Salvador.
15:37Or if she doesn't reform,
15:38the story might highlight
15:39that the character
15:40is well aware
15:41of how much power
15:42she yields
15:43through her race,
15:44class,
15:44and financial security.
15:45I don't think my father,
15:47the inventor of Toaster's Drudel,
15:48would be too pleased
15:49to hear about this.
15:50While some previous representations
15:57did involve Jewish women
15:58in key creative roles,
16:00such as screenwriter
16:01or co-creator,
16:02perhaps the two most in-depth,
16:04nuanced explorations
16:05of this trope today
16:06are the creations
16:07of Jewish female showrunners,
16:09Rachel Bloom's awkward
16:10but confident Rebecca Bunch
16:12in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,
16:13She's the coolest girl
16:15in the world,
16:16wait, wrong, Rebecca!
16:17And Amy Sherman Palladino's
16:21plucky, sometimes too confident
16:23Midge Maisel,
16:24played by Rachel Brosnahan
16:26in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
16:27I just want you to know
16:28how much I admire you guys.
16:30I could never be brave enough
16:32to wear the same outfit every day.
16:34Rebecca lives in a modern-day
16:36musical comedy,
16:37while Midge is a 1950s
16:39housewife and mother,
16:40but both grapple with
16:41to what extent their Jap identity
16:43is something they can escape
16:45or whether they should want to.
16:47At the beginning of their stories,
16:49both feel the need to break out
16:50of their more stereotypically
16:52Jap existences.
16:53Rebecca throws away
16:54her successful lawyer lifestyle
16:56in New York
16:56to move to West Covina, California.
16:59One day I was crying a lot
17:00and so I decided to move
17:02to West Covina, California.
17:04Where there's not much
17:05of a Jewish community,
17:06so the people she befriends
17:07don't understand her Jewish identity.
17:09That means disgrace.
17:10I'm translating for the goys.
17:12Likewise, Midge risks
17:13the stable comforts of her life
17:15as a New York City mother
17:16to bravely build a career
17:18as a stand-up comic.
17:19I used to live
17:20in the large house on the hill
17:21and now I live nowhere.
17:25As of an hour ago,
17:26my address changed to, huh?
17:28Like in some previous Jap stories,
17:31Rebecca and Midge
17:32are pushed by their narratives
17:33to become a little more aware
17:34of their privileged station in life
17:36and to connect with others
17:38in a less self-centered way.
17:40I want you to have a big apartment
17:41with hot water
17:43and a closet full of lasers.
17:45I want you to have a bank account.
17:47But both women use creative outlets,
17:49whether songwriting
17:50or stand-up comedy,
17:51to process just how complex
17:53their experiences
17:54as Jewish women really are.
17:56Strip away my conscience,
17:58tear away my Jew guilt.
18:00They and the shows about them
18:01mine their culture for material,
18:03like when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
18:05gives us the famed Jap rap battle
18:07between Rebecca
18:07and her hometown rival Audra.
18:10Think your verse is tight,
18:11then you're tripping like birthright.
18:12Rebecca grows enough
18:13to examine her behavior
18:15through the lens of not only herself
18:16and her own personal history,
18:18but also of her culture
18:19and her womanhood.
18:20And when Rebecca and Audra
18:22reconnect later
18:23to reprise their dynamic
18:24in a Jap praise fight
18:26where they out-complement each other,
18:28this culminates with the pair
18:31questioning the limitations
18:33of the Jap stereotype.
18:34This is touchy stuff
18:35and it's pretty complicated,
18:36but I noticed the dynamic
18:37and I thought that I should name it.
18:39Still, whereas Baby
18:40and Rachel Green
18:41were supposed to largely
18:42overcome their backgrounds,
18:44both rap battles underline
18:46that the Jap is really
18:47a complicated set of cultural cues,
18:49reflecting a particular
18:50socioeconomic class
18:52and subculture.
18:53Because we're liberal,
18:54duh, progressive as hell,
18:56though of course
18:57I support Israel.
18:58In Crazy Ex-Girlfriends
18:59or the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's
19:01modern understanding
19:02of the Jap archetype,
19:03this is not a simple cartoon
19:05that someone ought to just
19:06transcend or learn a lesson from.
19:09Rebecca is a self-aware person
19:11who evolves,
19:12yet all these elements
19:13of her cultural upbringing
19:14rightly remain
19:16a big part of who she is.
19:17And even as Midge's
19:19blue comedy act diverges
19:20from our stereotypical image
19:22of the Jap,
19:22All that s**t they say
19:24about Jewish girls
19:25in the bedroom?
19:26Not true.
19:27In other ways,
19:28she's still very happy
19:29to bathe in the comfort
19:31of her privilege
19:31and embrace the signifiers
19:33of this type,
19:34both in her life
19:35and in her comedy.
19:36Go home and clean the kitchen.
19:39Oh, sir, I'm Jewish.
19:40I pay people to do that.
19:42In searching for nuanced
19:43portrayals of Jewishness,
19:45womanhood,
19:45and Jewish womanhood on screen,
19:47we should ask ourselves
19:48how to move beyond
19:50outdated stereotypes.
19:51I want money to be.
19:53Ben, give her some money.
19:55It's easier.
19:56Even the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
19:57has attracted negative attention
19:59for relying on
20:00multiple Jewish stereotypes,
20:02some of which make the show
20:03more relatable,
20:04but can also border on
20:05uncomfortable.
20:06It's the show that makes
20:07audiences sit up and say,
20:09wait, is this anti-Semitic?
20:11As portrayals continue to evolve,
20:12it's worth asking,
20:13must we always look to
20:15identify Jewish women on screen
20:17by how they conform to the
20:18stereotypes we're familiar with?
20:20There's just so much to take in,
20:22the history,
20:23the tradition,
20:24the philosophy,
20:25oy!
20:26You guys,
20:28that was my first oy!
20:30Or can we imagine ways
20:32of both living
20:33and portraying Jewishness
20:34that don't rely so much
20:36on what we think
20:36the audience expects?
20:38We should also continue
20:39to look to non-white
20:40Jewish American comedians,
20:42actors,
20:42and writers
20:43who can share
20:43their own unique perspectives
20:45on their cultural identity.
20:47What is this for you?
20:48I think I found my people.
20:50And we should consider
20:51what it means
20:52that some of our most iconic
20:54on-screen Jewish characters
20:55are not actually played
20:57by Jewish women.
20:58And yes,
20:59there is shrimp
20:59in the egg rolls.
21:00Most importantly,
21:01we should ask ourselves,
21:03when we're quick to laugh
21:04at a jab on our TV screen,
21:06are we laughing with her
21:07or at her?
21:08I'm sorry that people
21:10are so jealous of me,
21:11but I can't help it
21:12that I'm popular.
21:13This is the take.
21:16What do you want
21:17our take on next?
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