Beck, Evelyn Torton (1992) From 'Kike to Jap': How misogyny, anti-semitism,

and racism construct the Jewish American Princess. In Margaret Andersen &
Patricia Hill Collins (Eds.) Race, Class, and Gender. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,
87-95.

The stereotyping of the Jewish American woman as the JAP, which stands for
Jewish American Princess, is an insult, an injury, and violence that is done to
Jewish women. The term is used widely by both men and women, by both Jews
and non-Jews. When gentiles use it, it is a form of anti-Semitism. When Jews use
it, it is a form of self-hating or internalized anti-Semitism. It is a way of thinking
that allows some Jewish women to harm other Jewish women who are just like
them except for the fact that one is okay -- she's not a JAP. The other is not okay -
- she's too JAPie. The seriousness of this term becomes evident when we substitute
the words "too Jewish" for "too JAPie," and feel ourselves becoming considerably
less comfortable.

When I speak on college campuses, young women frequently tell me that when
someone calls them a Jew they are insulted because they know it's being said with
a kind of hostility, but if someone calls them a JAP they don't mind because they
frequently use this term themselves. They think the "J" in JAP really doesn't mean
anything -- it's just there. While everyone seems to know what the characteristics
of a "Jewish American Princess" are, no one ever seems to think about what they
are saying when they use the term. How is it that you don't have to be Jewish to be
a JAP? If this is so, why is the word "Jewish" in the acronym at all? Words are not
meaningless unless we choose to close our ears and pretend not to hear.

This subject is frequently trivialized, but when it is not, when we take it seriously,
it makes us extremely tense. Why is that? I think it's because it takes us into several
"war zones." It brings us in touch with Jew-hating, or anti-Semitism. It brings us
in touch with misogyny, or woman-hating. And it brings us in touch with class-
hatred, old money vs. nouveau riche. (Jews have classically been seen as intruders
in the United States and have been resented for "making it.") It also puts us strongly
in touch with racism. It is no accident that the acronym JAP is also the word used
for our worst enemies in World War II -- who were known as "the Japs." During
World War II, posters and slogans saying "Kill Japs" were everywhere. It was a
period in which slang terms were readily used in a pejorative way to identify many
different minorities: "Japs," "Kikes," "Spics," "Wops," "Chinks" were
commonplace terms used unthinkingly. And women were and, unfortunately, still
are -- easily named "bitches," "sluts," and "cunts."

In such a climate, negative stereotypes easily overlap and elide. For example, in
the popular imagination, Jews, "Japs," women and homosexuals have all been

1
viewed as devious, unreliable, and power hungry. What has happened in the
decades following World War II is that the "Japs," whom we de-humanized when
we dropped our atom bomb on them, have subliminally merged in the popular
imagination with "kikes" and other foreign undesirables. (The fact that in the 1980s
Japan poses a serious economic threat to the United States should not be
overlooked either.) While efforts to eradicate slurs against ethnic minorities have
made it not okay to use explicitly ethnic epithets, women still provide an
acceptable target, especially when the misogyny is disguised as supposedly "good-
natured" humor. In this insidious and circuitous way, the Jewish American woman
carries the stigmas of the "kikes" and "Japs" of a previous era. And that is very
serious.

The woman, the Jewish woman as JAP has replaced the male Jew as the scapegoat,
and the Jewish male has not only participated, but has, in fact, been instrumental
in creating and perpetuating that image. I want to show how some of the images of
Jewish women created in American culture by Jewish men provided the roots of
the "Jewish American Princess." But first I want to provide a context for
understanding the development of this image. I want to look at anti-Semitism in
the United States, and at misogyny, and show how the merging of anti-Semitism
and misogyny creates the Jewish American Princess.

Between 1986 and 1987 there was a 17 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in this
country. Of these incidents, 48 percent occurred in the Northeast, and the highest
rates of increase were in New York State; California, particularly Los Angeles;
and Florida. These are all areas where there are high concentrations of Jews. On
November 9 and 10, 1987, the anniversary

of Kristalnacbt, the Night of Broken Crystal, when Goebbels staged a mass 64

spontaneous pogrom" in Austria and Germany in 1938, swastikas were painted on
entrances to synagogues in a number of different cities in the United States:
Chicago, Yonkers, and others dotted across the country. Windows were smashed -
- not simply of Jewish-owned stores, but of identifiably Jewish businesses such as
kosher meat markets, a kosher fish store, a Jewish book store -- in five different
neighborhoods, particularly in a Chicago suburb largely populated by Holocaust
survivors. Having grown up in Vienna and having lived under the Nazis, the horror
of that night resonated for me in a way that it might not for those who are much
younger. But that, these pogrom-like episodes happened on the eve
of Kristalnacbt cannot have been an accident, and the timing of these incidents
should not be lost upon us.

In response to these attacks many members of the Jewish community wanted to

hide the facts, and one member of the Jewish community in Chicago actually said,

2
"The swastikas could have meant general white supremacy; they were not
necessarily aimed at Jews." They just "happened" to be placed on synagogues,
right? In the same way, it just "happens" that the word "Jewish" is lodged in the
very negative image of this hideous creature known as the Jewish American
Princess. Anyone who is aware of Jewish history and knows about the ridicule,
defamation, and violence to which Jews have been subject will not be able to write
this off so easily.

The Jewish American Princess phenomenon is not new; I (as well as other Jewish
feminists) have been talking about it for at least ten years now, but only recently
has it been given wide public attention. One reason for this is that it is beginning
to be seen in the light of increased anti-Semitism and racism, particularly on
college campuses. Dr. Gary Spencer, who is a male professor of sociology at
Syracuse University (and it is unfortunate that his being male gives him credibility
over women saying the same things) closely examined the library and bathroom
graffiti of his school and interviewed hundreds of students on his campus and has
concluded that "JAP"-baiting is widespread, virulent, and threatening to all Jews,
not "just"Jewish women (which we gather might have been okay or certainly
considerably less serious).

Spencer discovered that nasty comments about "JAPS" led to more generally anti-
Semitic graffiti that said among other slogans, "Hitler was right!" "Give Hitler a
second chance!" and "I hate Jews." He also discovered that there were certain
places in which Jewish women --JAPS -- were not welcome: for example, certain
cafes where Jewish women were hassled if they entered. He also found that certain
areas of the University were considered "JAP-free zones" and other areas
(particular dorms) that were called "Jew havens." At The American University in
Washington, D.C., largely Jewish residence halls are called "Tokyo Towers,"
making the racial overtones of "JAP" explicit. But let the parallels to Nazi occupied
Europe not be lost upon us. Under the Nazis, movements of Jews were sharply
restricted: there were many areas which Jews could not enter, and others (like
ghettos and concentration camps) that they could not leave.

What I want to do now is to show how characteristics that have historically been
attributed to Jews, primarily Jewish men, have been reinterpreted in terms of
women: how misogyny combined with Jew-hating creates the Jewish American
Princess. And I want you to remember that Jewish men have not only participated
in this trashing, but they have not protected Jewish women when other men and
women have talked about "JAPS" in this way. And this fact, I think, has made this
an arena into which anyone can step-an arena that becomes a minefield when Jews
step into it.

3
Jews have been said to be materialistic, money-grabbing, greedy, and ostentatious.
Women have been said to be vain, trivial and shallow; they're only interested in
clothing, in show. When you put these together you get the Jewish-woman type
who's only interested in designer clothes and sees her children only as extensions
of herself. The Jew has been seen as manipulative, crafty, untrustworthy,
unreliable, calculating, controlling, and malevolent. The Jewish Princess is seen as
manipulative, particularly of the men in her life, her husband, her boyfriend, her
father. And what does she want? Their money! In addition, she's lazay -- she doesn't
work inside or outside the home. She is the female version of the Jew who,
according to anti-Semitic lore, is a parasite on society; contradictorily, the Jew has
been viewed both as dangerous communist" as well as non-productive "capitalist."
The cartoon vision of the Jewish American Princess is someone who sucks men
dry: she is an "unnatural mother" who refuses to nurture her children (the very
opposite of the "Jewish mother" whose willingness to martyr herself makes her
ludicrous). And she doesn't "put out" except in return for goods; she isn't really
interested in either sexuality or lovingness. We live in a world climate and culture
in which materialism is rampant, and Jewish women are taking the rap for it. The
irony is they are taking the rap from non-Jews and Jewish men alike -- even from
some Jewish women.

Another way in which Jewish women are carrying the anti-Semitism that was
directed in previous eras at Jewish men is in the arena of sexuality. Jews have been
said to be sexually strange, exotic. There are many stereotypes of Jewish men as
lechers. The Jewish American Princess is portrayed as both sexually frigid
(withholding) and as a nymphomaniac. Here we again see the familiar anti-Semitic
figure of the Jew as controlling and insatiably greedy, always wanting more,
combining with the misogynist stereotype of the insatiable woman, the woman
who is infinitely orgasmic, who will destroy men with her desire. Like the Jew of
old, the Jewish woman will suck men dry. But she is worse than "the Jew" --she
will also turn on her own kind.

There are physical stereotypes as well: the Jew with the big hook nose, thick lips,
and frizzy hair. The Jewish American Princess has had a nose job and her hair has
been straightened, but she too has large lips (an image we immediately also
recognize as racist). Jews are supposed to be loud, pushy, and speak with unrefined
accents. Jewish American Princesses are said to come from Long Island and speak
with funny accents: "Oh my Gawd!" The accent has changed from the lampooned
immigrant speech of previous generations, but assimilation into the middle class
hasn't helped the Jewish American Princess get rid of her accent. It doesn't matter
how she speaks, because if it's Eastern and recognizably Jewish, it's not okay.

4
I also want to give you some idea of how widespread and what a moneymaking
industry the Jewish American Princess phenomenon has become. There are
greeting cards about the "JAP Olympics," with the JAP doing things like "bank-
vaulting" instead of pole-vaulting. Or cross-country "kvetcbing" instead of skiing.
In this card the definition of the Yiddish term "kvetch" reads: an irritable whine
made by a three-year-old child or a JAP at any age." So in addition to the all-
powerful monster you also have the infantilization of the Jewish woman. And there
are the Bunny Bagelman greeting cards: Bunny has frizzy hair, big lips, is wearing
ostentatious jewelry-and is always marked as a Jew in some way. One of her cards
reads, "May God Bless you and keep you ... rich!" Or Bunny Bagelman is a
professional, dressed in a suit carrying a briefcase, but this image is undermined
by the little crown she incongruously wears on her head bearing the initials "JAP."
There is also a Halloween card with a grotesque female figure; the card reads, "Is
it a vicious vampire? No, it's Bunny Bagelman with PMS syndrome!" In analyzing
these kinds of cartoons, you begin to see how sexism is absolutely intertwined with
anti-Semitism.

Such attacks devalue Jewish women and keep them in line. An incident reported
by Professor Spencer at Syracuse University makes this quite evident. At a
basketball game, when women who were presumed to be "JAPS" stood up and
walked across the floor at half-time (and it happened to Jewish and non-Jewish
women), 2,000 students stood up, accusingly pointed their fingers at them, and
repeatedly yelled, "JAP, JAP, JAP, JAP, JAP" in a loud chorus. This was so
humiliating and frightening that women no longer got out of their seats to go to the
bathroom or to get a soda. This is a form of public harassment that is guaranteed
to control behavior and parallels a phenomenon called "punching" at the University
of Dar El Salaam, Tanzania. Here, when women were "uppity" or otherwise
stepped out of line, huge posters with their pictures on them were put all over
campus, and no one was to speak to them. If you spoke to these women, you were
considered to be like them. This is a very effective way of controlling people.

The threat of physical violence against Jewish women (in the form of "Slap-a-JAP"
T-shirts and contests at bars) is evident on many Eastern college campuses. A disc
jockey at The American University went so far as to sponsor a "fattest JAP-on-
campus" contest. That this kind of unchecked verbal violence can lead to murder
is demonstrated by lawyer Shirley Frondorf in a recent book entitled Deatb of a
"Jewish American Princess": The True Story of a Victim on Trial (Villard Books,
1988). Frondorf shows how the murder of a Jewish woman by her husband was
exonerated and the victim placed on trial because she was someone who was
described by her husband as "materialistic, who shopped and spent, nagged shrilly
and bothered her husband at work" -- in other words, she was a "JAP" and therefore

5
deserved what she got. This account demonstrates the dangers inherent in
stereotyping and the inevitable dehumanization that follows.

One of the most aggressively sexual forms of harassment of Jewish women, which
amounted to verbal rape, were signs posted at a college fair booth at Cornell
University that read, "Make her prove she's not a JAP, make her swallow." Part of
the mythology is that the Jewish woman will suck, but she won't swallow. So you
see that as the degradation of woman as woman escalates, the anti-Semitism also
gets increasingly louder. In a recent Cornell University student newspaper, a
cartoon offered advice on how to "exterminate" JAPS by setting up a truck offering
bargains, collecting the JAPS as they scurried in, and dropping them over a cliff.
While the word "Jew" was not specifically mentioned, the parallels to the historical
"rounding up" of Jews and herding them into trucks to be exterminated in the
camps during World War 11 can hardly be ignored. This cartoon was created by a
Jewish man.

This leads me directly to the third thing I want to discuss, namely, how and why
Jewish men have participated in constructing and perpetuating the image of the
Jewish American Princess as monster. How is it that the Jewish Mother(a mildly
derogatory stereotype that nonetheless contained some warmth) has become the
grotesque that is the Jewish American Princess, who, unlike the Jewish Mother,
has absolutely no redeeming features? Exactly how the Jewish Mother (created
entirely by second generation American men who had begun to mock the very
nurturance they had relied upon for their success) gave birth to the Jewish
American Princess is a long and complex story. This story is intertwined with the
overall economic success of Jews as a class in the United States, the jealousy others
have felt over this success, and the discomfort this success creates in Jews who are
fearful of living out the stereotype of the "rich Jew." It is also a likely conjecture
that middle-class American Jewish men view the large numbers of Jewish women
who have successfully entered the work force as professionals as a serious
economic and ego threat.

We find the origins of the Jewish American Princess in the fiction of American
Jewish males of the last three decades. In the '50s, Herman Wouk's Marjory
Morningstar (see Morgenstern) leaves behind her immigrant background, takes a
new name (one that is less recognizably Jewish), manipulates men, has no talent,
and is only interested in expensive clothing. The postwar Jewish male, who is
rapidly assimilating into American middle-class culture and leaving behind
traditional Jewish values, is creating the Jewish woman -- the materialistic, empty,
manipulative Jewish woman, the Americanized daughter who fulfills the American
Dream for her parents but is, at the same time, punished for it. It looks as if the
Jewish woman was created in the image of the postwar Jewish male but viewed by
6
her creator as grotesque. All the characteristics he cannot stand in himself are
displaced onto the Jewish woman.

In the '60s, Philip Roth created the spoiled and whiny Brenda Potemkin in
Goodbye, Columbus at the same time that Shel Silverstein created his image of the
perfect Jewish mother as martyr. Some of you may remember this popular story
from your childhood. A synopsis goes something like this: "Once there was a tree
and she loved the little boy. And he slept in her branches, and loved the tree and
the tree was happy. And as the boy grew older, he needed things from her. He
needed apples, so she gave him apples, and she was happy. Then she cut off her
branches because the boy needed them to build a house. And she was happy. Then
finally he needed her trunk because he wanted to build a big boat for himself and
she was happy. The tree gave and gave of herself, and finally the tree was alone
and old when the boy returned one more time. By now, the tree had nothing to
give. But the boy/man is himself old now, and he doesn't need much except a place
on which to sit. And the tree said, 'An old stump is good for sitting and resting on.
Come boy and sit and rest on me." And the boy did, and the tree was happy." This
"positive" entirely self-less mother, created as a positive wish fantasy by a Jewish
man, very easily tips over into its opposite, the monstrous woman, the self-
absorbed "JAP" who is negatively self-less. She has no center. She is only clothes,
money, and show.

In concluding, I want to bring these strands together and raise some questions.
Obviously Jews need to be as thoughtful about consumerism as others, but we need
to ask why the Jewish woman is taking the rap for the consumerism which is
rampant in our highly materialistic culture in general. We need to think about the
image of the Jewish American Princess and the father she tries to manipulate. What
has happened to the Jewish Mother? Why has she dropped out of the picture? If
(as is likely true of all groups) some middle-class Jewish women (and men) are
overly focused on material things, what is the other side of that? What about the
middle-class fathers who measure their own success by what material goods they
are able to provide to their wives and children and who don't know how to show
love in any other way? Someone who doesn't know how to give except through
material goods could easily create a child who comes to expect material goods as
a proof of love and self-worth, especially if sexist gender expectations limit the
options for women. We need to look more closely at the relationship between the
"monster" daughter and the father who helped create her.

This brings up another uncomfortable subject -- incest in Jewish families. We have

to look carefully at the image of the "little princess" who sits on Daddy's lap and
later becomes this monstrous figure. (My father thought it appropriate for me to sit
on his lap until the day he died, well into his '80s, and I do not believe he was
7
unusual in his expectations.) There are enough stories of incest in which we know
that the father who sexually abuses his daughter when she is a child becomes quite
distant when she reaches adolescence and may continue to abuse her in
psychological ways. And the JAP image is a real form of psychological abuse. We
need to look at these things to understand that this phenomenon is not trivial, and
to understand how it undermines all Jewish women and particularly harms young
women coming of age. It cannot do Jewish men such good either to think of their
sisters, daughters, mothers, and potential girlfriends with such contempt.

Last, I want to say that we have many false images of Jewish families.
There is violence in Jewish families, just as there is violence in families of all
groups. It is time to put the whole question of the Jewish American Princess into
the context of doing away with myths of all kinds. The Jewish family is no more
nor less cohesive than other families, although there is great pressure on Jewish
families to pretend they are. Not all Jewish families are non-alcoholic; not all
Jewish families are heterosexual; not all Jews are upper or middle class; and not
all are urban or Eastern. It's important that the truth of Jewish women's (and also
Jewish men's) lives be spoken. Beginning to take apart this image of the Jewish
American Princess can make us look more closely at what it is that we, in all of
our diversity as Jews, are; what we are striving towards; and what we hope to
become.