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Millennial Jewish Stars: Masculinity, Racial Ambiguity, and Public Allure
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- From the medieval era to the 1950s, European and Euro-American cultures often accused Jews of “deviant” masculinity—asserting that Jewish men lack penises or even menstruate, while deeming Jewish women “mannish.” These masculine stereotypes reinforced the racial stigma on Jews, who were often deemed nonwhite or not-quite-white “Asiatics,” “Semites,” or “Orientals” until the 1950s. Although (light-skinned) American Jews are usually considered white today, debates linger about where Jews “fit” racially—for example, when the 2017 Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally chanted “Jews will not replace us.” These questions link with ongoing stereotypes of deviant Jewish masculinity, like media images of nebbishy Jewish men or aggressive Jewish women. Yet feminist scholarship on race and masculinity often overlooks Jews by conflating them with white gentiles. And despite the masculine stigmas on Jewish women, studies on Jewish masculinity tend to examine only men. Likewise, Jewish studies rarely analyzes how anti-Semitic ideas about race or masculinity impact Jews of color. These gaps limit analysis of Jews and race even as anti-Semitism regains public attention in the United States and Europe. Millennial Jewish Stars: Masculinity, Racial Ambiguity, and Public Allure fills these gaps by examining six young Jewish stars in the U.S. media: the mixed-race rapper Drake, comedic rapper Lil Dicky, film actors Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, and TV comedy duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. I study how these stars repackage historical notions of Jewish race and masculinity to comment on white male supremacy. In turn, these cultural commentaries fuel each star’s appeal. Using a “star studies” methodology, I analyze each star’s performances (films, TV shows, music videos, stand-up sets, and podcasts) alongside interviews, social media posts, and publicity materials. I advance Jewish, feminist, queer, and critical race studies by showing that the racial position of American Jews is best studied through the lens of masculinity alongside color: Although my six Jewish stars are deemed white or black by skin tone, they also face the notion that Jewishness is a bodily (racial) trait visible through abnormal masculinity.Chapter two analyzes Drake, a top-selling rapper of black gentile and Ashkenazi (European Jewish) descent. Though embracing Judaism as a religion, Drake downplays bodily definitions of Jewishness to avoid connotations of deviant Jewish masculinity. This strategy helps Drake build an alluring image that balances stereotypes of black and white gentile masculinity. Chapter three examines the Ashkenazi comedic rapper Lil Dicky, who mocks himself as a wimpy Jewish loser. This emasculated Jewish image appeals to white male fans who themselves feel emasculated by men of color and women of all colors. Chapter four studies Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, whose comedy series Broad City is hailed as a feminist triumph for depicting women who enjoy “masculine” sexual escapades and bathroom humor. Jacobson and Glazer achieve this groundbreaking appeal by reclaiming the “beautiful Jewess,” a stock figure from European plays, operas, and novels of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. The beautiful Jewess is at once exotically seductive and monstrously masculine, a gender style that fuels Jacobson and Glazer’s comedy. Chapter five addresses the comedy film star Seth Rogen, who uses stereotypes of weak, perverse Jewish masculinity to craft an endearingly boyish image. This reputation helps Rogen appeal to white straight men by performing characters who balance respectable, straight married life with fun, youthful “bromance.” Chapter six analyzes Zac Efron, a film actor so muscular, white, blond, and blue-eyed that many fans struggle to believe he is Jewish. Efron’s roles exaggerate many anxieties about millennial white, straight, gentile masculinity, only to comedically resolve those anxieties. For example, Efron’s characters confront the twenty-first-century social critiques and economic changes that complicate young white, straight, gentile men’s career prospects. Efron can play such roles only because he does not fit bodily (racial) notions of Jewish masculinity—yet his characters often fix their problems by learning from pudgy, emasculated Jewish sidekicks who do fit these racial stereotypes. By studying these stars, I advance the way Jewish, feminist, queer, and critical race studies analyze race in media texts. I especially identify how masculine stereotypes continue to matter alongside skin color in the racial perception of American Jews, positioning Ashkenazi Jews both inside and outside U.S. notions of whiteness. My study also extends scholarship on Jews of color and on racialized female masculinities.
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenDissertations
- Publication Type :
- Dissertation/ Thesis
- Accession number :
- ddu.oai.etd.ohiolink.edu.osu155490057529243