#antisemitism in media

[mylight-png]

A while ago I was listening to Dara Horn's podcast relating to her book, People Love Dead Jews. Within this podcast she discussed the fact that Holocaust museums tend to center stories that highlight ways in which Jews were just like anyone else, putting secular Jews on a pedestal of sorts.

The podcast went on to make the point that we shouldn't have to be like them to be liked. A Jew in a kippah is just as worthy of being accepted as a Jew in a baseball cap, and to position one, the more assimilated one, as "better" is antisemitic.

This made me think of how movies and shows portray Jews, and I realized a similar pattern of idealizing assimilation is deeply prevalent.

There are two main ways Jews are portrayed in movies/shows that I've noticed that are problematic. (For a narrower scope I'll be discussing American media as I am more familiar with that than most other countries.)

The first kind of Jewish representation is the token Jew. This is the character that the viewer wouldn't even have known is Jewish had the show not casually mentioned them celebrating Hanukkah in passing. This is the character who is entirely the same as any other character. An example of this would be in Ginny and Georgia, where a few side characters are revealed to be Jewish. This reveal occurred only for the purpose of making a Hanukkah episode, and immediately one of the characters says the beginning words to most of our prayers, adding "bitch" at the end. This sort of absolutely blatant disrespect towards the words many of us wouldn't even speak fully in casual conversation is meant to indicate that it's okay to poke fun at our religion. (By the way, it isn't okay. Don't disrespect our religion, thanks.) (And no the actress wasn't Jewish.)

Then there's Ben Gross from Never Have I Ever, a similarly extremely assimilated Jewish character. Instead of making fun of Judaism, however, the show plays into Jewish stereotypes. Ben's dad is a wealthy influential lawyer who works with Hollywood. Come on, there's three in a row there. Ben himself is frequently made fun of for being very short (to an extent not befitting the actor's actual stature), and some of his mannerisms could be described as effeminate. All of these traits play into anti-Jewish stereotypes. The protagonist even says she wishes Ben was killed by Nazis and other than a scolding this isn't made to be the big deal that it is.

These sorts of characters are meant to show how Jews are "just like you!" and pokes cruel fun at the few remaining things that do occasionally set them apart. Yes, secular Jews exist, but the way these shows make fun of their Jewish identities is where the issue arises.

The second problematic representation is meant to make goyim feel good about being goyim. This is specifically done through how Judaism is portrayed in these movies.

A major example of this is the show Unorthodox, in which the plot centers a young girl trying to escape her very observant community. This show directly demonized the Jewish religion, making it appear inherently oppressive and twisted.

While some may argue that the show was merely trying to portray the social issues within the community, there are better ways to achieve this.

The book An Unorthodox Match takes on a similar task with a vastly different tone. The book centers a protagonist joining an equally observant community, but not for a moment does the book, author, or protagonist blame Judaism. The book is very clearly written by a Jew who loves Judaism, and yet it manages to highlight similar social issues to the show without blaming Judaism. In fact, Jewish traditions have a fair share of appreciation in the book!

This sort of media is meant to make the goyishe viewers be grateful they aren't part of those communities, but as a Jewish viewer I felt deeply uncomfortable with the positioning of religious Jews as a negative part of society. This media makes the characters seem like they have nothing at all in common with the goyim around them or the goyim watching the show. It's the polar opposite of the previous example.

The first example is showing Jews as "just like anyone else" until they aren't, while the second example portrays Jews as entirely other. Never have I seen an Orthodox Jewish character side by side with the non-Jewish characters in any other context than the Jewish character envying their non-Jewish peers.

Why is the choice either to be assimilated or othered? Why can we not have an observant Jewish character remind their friends that they can't hang out on Saturday, or maybe they bring their own kosher snacks? Maybe a Jewish character muttering a bracha over their food? Why not make being Jewish an important part of their character without making them self-loathe because of it?

Media almost only ever shows two extremes and neither of those extremes has a positive impact on the perception of Jews.

(There is also a pattern I've noticed with Jews and goyim being cast in Jewish roles and how that corresponds to the character, but that's probably another post for another time.)

#jumblr #jewish #judaism #jew #antisemitism #Antisemitism in media #long post #sorry for the mini essay haha

[fromchaostocosmos]

We Need To Talk About The Oscars

Or more like I a Jewish person need you non-Jewish people to listen and actually hear me and other Jewish people when we talk about Jewish representation and utter lack of it in media.

I know that you think there is Jewish representation is media and I know many of you think that is probably an over abundance of Jewish representation in fact.

But having characters occasionally say oy vey, or kosher or mazal tov even though they are not Jewish is not representation. Saying schmear or a yiddish word here and there again usually by non-Jewish characters is not representation.

Having characters who we only know they are Jewish because it comes up during xmas episodes and they mention Hanukah like once is not representation especially if they are not played by Jewish actors.

Having canon Jewish characters stripped of being for tv shows or movies is not representation. Having a canon non-Jewish character made Jewish, but by doing so it plays it really harmful stereotypes and tropes abouts Jews is not representation (i.e the penguin in the animated Harley Quinn Series being made Jewish even though he is not all while not having Harley be Jewish even though canonically she is).

Having Jewish actors play villainous roles all the time especially ones with certain overtones is not only not representation it is actively harmful.

Having non-Jewish actors play Jewish characters and people is not representation, no matter how far back they may or may not have some Jewish ancestry perhaps.

There are three movies nominated for multiple Oscars about three real Jewish people. Not one of those films bothered to get a Jewish actors to portray these very real Jews.

Maestro has Bradley Cooper portraying Leonard Bernstein, Golda has Helen Mirren portraying Golda Meir, and Oppenheimer has Cillian Murphy portraying J. Robert Oppenheimer.

All three actors are not Jewish and yet all three portrayed Jewish people in their films.

All of three films are being awarded for their antisemitism, because that is what this is, with a bevy of award nominations from the Academy. Even if one does not go home with Oscar to be an Oscar Nominee still comes with prestige and seal of approval.

Both Maestro and Oppenheimer are being awarded with the Best Actor Nomination for their choice of non-Jewish men to play Jewish men.

Golda and Maestro have been awarded with the Best Hairstyling and Makeup Nomination despite both films heavy use of prosthetic makeup of their non-Jewish actors in order to make them "look more Jewish".

This is disgusting. This is antisemitic point blank. Hollywood as an industry has always been antisemitic and continues to be so. And now it rewards itself for its antisemitism. Once again it is left to Jews to shout into the void about this shameful injustice and hope that others will hear us and help make our voices heard.

This should not be happening still. This should be a wake up call within Hollywood and should a moment to course correct and do better.

Clearly it is not. I do not hold my breathe. I can say what I feel needs to be said and hope and that others see it and understand the truth in what I am saying.

It is time to stop erasing from our own stories and narratives. It is time to start giving us true and meaningful representation.

#antisemitism #hollywood antisemitism #antisemitism in media #jewish representation #lack of jewish representation #jewish erasure

[batrogers]

Civilized Or Not

So there’s some common Zelda fanon I wanna talk about, relating to civilization tropes I think some of y’all haven’t really thought about in detail before, and that’s Hyrule (Zelda 1 &2 Link), Wild (BOTW mostly), and Ravio (LbW).

I’m using the Linked Universe names, because that’s where most of it comes up, because these things happen most often where you can contrast the boys with each other. This is often done, quick and dirty, by people assigning “roles” to each without much thought. Ravio’s unfortunately tends to be extremely pervasive outside LU spaces, too.

But, in brief, there is a trend for people to craft these characters in a framework of innocent vs savagery vs trickery that can have some really unfortunate implications I’m not sure many are even aware of. Hopefully I can explain better where these ideas come from, why they’re so easy and appealing, and why we should try to avoid repeating them for more than just the sake of “easy” but also to stop repeating some really nasty historical tropes.

I would start from what’s probably the simplest one to address: the tendency towards a “feral” personification of Wild. This tends to come from two places: Wild’s amnesia, and the collapse of society around him and his lost place in it.

Now, brain damage is complicated. You can lose a range of things to any given injury because of the way information is encoded differently and in different places. You can lose memory and/or skills and/or coordination and/or balance, etc, because it all depends on what got damaged. But in-game a lot of stuff suggests that Link retains things like speech, reading/writing, coordination, and martial skills. None of the people who knew Link prior to his injury suggest he seems changed in any way not attributed to stress and anxiety...

And, more importantly, real people suffer memory loss just like that in the real world. Treating him like he’s become “feral” due to memory loss is cruel to actual people living with brain damage today, and if you go there you should have a good reason for it.

Social collapse is a wide-spread theme in basically every Zelda game. The threat that the Big Bad poses is almost always the destruction of society as it exists: Malladus literally vanishes the infrastructure of New Hyrule in Spirit Tracks; the Twilight turns people into spirits living lives they don’t realize are questionably real in Twilight Princess; Veran freezes the passage of time to force people to work forever in Oracle of Ages. King Daphnes and Ganondorf under the sea vie over the fate of the world above in Wind Waker: keep what’s been made, or start all over again?

In modern culture, people tell a lot of stories about the fragility of civilization and what happens in its absence. You get the range from Lord of the Flies, in which children wrecked on an island attempt (and fail) to recreate civilization on their own, Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” in which Mowgli is treated as reckless and innocent, and a much more obscure piece from the 18th century “Paul et Virginie” (and likely many more I don’t know offhand.) Essentially all of them play with the question of how do people become civilized, and what happens when they do? In Lord of the Flies, the children were civilized and failed to maintain it; in the Jungle Book, the boy wasn’t civilized and innocently interacts with it. In Paul et Virginie, the children were (relatively) uncivilized on the (French colonized) Mauritius, raised by their mothers but when the girl was sent away, she becomes civilized and dies tragically to preserve it.

The two Links most removed from civilization are Hyrule and Wild. Wild “lost” civilization, losing both his memories of it and the structure of it. Making him feral, without manners, and without a place to belong is that kind of Lord of the Flies savagery mixed with Mowgli’s innocent playfulness: there isn’t a structure to adhere to, so he’s a savage. Whereas Hyrule is more like the Paul eg Virginie side: innocent of civilization, he remains pure and sweet and kind, unable to conceive of big concepts like evil or money or so on. Neither position permits them to interact with the civilization that is right there in front of them! Wild can buy a house; he has people who know and care for him. He has social connections and social rights. The world exists, but the fandom does not seem to want him to interact with it in favour of remaining “wild.” In Zelda 2 – a game explicitly set within a decade of Zelda 1 – there are whole towns with trade and a castle and massive structures with on-going life in them... but very few fans seem to ever reach into that story or relate it back to the first. Hyrule, the character, does not exist within Hyrule, the country.

Strangely, Wind Waker does not fall prey to this, I think because the structures are presented as fait accompli: Link wakes up with his grandmother and his sister, he has a defined home, and a society in which you spend the entire game forced to engage with. Zelda 1 & 2 were not sophisticated enough to waste resources on going as in depth in social terms (although such interactions absolutely exist in Zelda 2!) and BOTW leaves such interactions as optional: you can survive the game with minimal social contact... but it’s a choice to play with it that way, not the default. The ways in which this edges onto the noble savage trope, in which “uncivilized” tribes are either innocent or brutish (rather than complex social systems in their own right) is fairly obvious.

There is one other character in Zelda who gets treated to the question of whether he is an innocent, free of civilization and all its rigour... or something else. Ravio, coming from the devastated world of Lorule, can often wind up slotted into the scared, innocent child trope and unfortunately that’s the better position people frequently take. The worse one evokes the Merchant of Venice: the deceitful, Jewish merchant who values money over people’s lives.

Lorule (and Nintedo’s approach towards their humanoid Zelda villains in general) is near-eastern-coded in many ways, down to the fact that Yuga’s outfit is the spitting image of Ottoman dress. Yuga being a depraved bisexual (a common historical trope about Muslim men towards Christian men and boys), and Hilda being deceitful and conspiring against everyone she was once allied to are a backdrop to the ways in which Ravio is a greedy coward. He’s not an evil character in the game; the mechanic of penalizing death without being too severe is interesting and works well! But that doesn’t take away the stereotype, just like it’s not okay Nabooru is pretty explicitly predatory towards child Link in Ocarina of Time, too.

Arab and Jewish stereotypes often converge, because both people's originate from the same region, and both are hostile "Others" to Christian Europe and Nintendo doesn’t have a great track record of their near-Eastern coding in Zelda. It crosses the whole gamut from harem and amazon tropes with the Gerudo to breath-takingly anti-semitic or anti-black (Ganondorf being green, eg. non-human, in various incarnations), all packaged neatly in the ideal of medieval fantasy Europe. The scale would be impressive if it wasn’t so damn awful, but we can at least stop repeating it in our fanworks.

Wild doesn’t have to be feral to be a playful little shit; Hyrule doesn’t have to be pure and innocent to be kind. Ravio doesn’t need to be innocent or scheming, and he shouldn’t place money over Link’s well-being (If you chose to respawn at home, he is consistently only ever concerned for Link! Once you buy the items outright, he promises he'll still be there to take care of you.)

Do better. It’s more interesting that way, and I want to see that variety grow!

[If any of y'all would like me to dig up better sources on any point, I can do so but I didn't want to bog this post down further. I have largely left the anti-arab stuff alone because it's not the biggest issue with Ravio's fanon presence, which is the focus here.]

#Zelda Meta #Linked Universe #Ravio #LU Wild #LU Hyrule #antisemitism in media #noble savage tropes #bad tropes #Unfortunate implications #LOZ meta #LU meta #Long post #like 1200 words #I'm having a week okay #brain damage #mental illness

[dragynkeep]

i wonder if rooster teeth is gonna trot out their quirky, cute nazi character again in both of their new seasons of ips

#rwby #rwde #anti coco adel #camp camp #anti dolf #antisemitism #antisemitism in media #ais.txt #i want these goy [redacted] :)))

[challahbeloved]

uhhhh

I was watching a show and it had Shake it Out by Florence + the Machine playing in the background. Because of the captions, I caught the lyric “And every demon wants his pound of flesh.”

And I thought “that better not be a fucking Shylock reference.”

It was.

#antisemitism in media

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

they really put themselves in a catch-22 with Coco, they either keep a character based on an IRL Nazi alive in their show, or kill off/write off one of the few Queer characters in their show, they really can't win.

#rwby #rwde #coco adel #yes I'm putting the character tag on #antisemitism in media

[neon-slime]

I just started watching the Harley Quinn show and I really excited about it but the second episode was really antisemitic 😐

I'm pretty disappointed ngl

#neon text post #harley quinn #antisemitism in media

[tiredfloridianbutverygay]

I’m going to say something controversial here but shouting at people for buying at Hogwarts Legacy does nothing. Like the money’s already been bought, there’s especially no moral high ground to spoiling a game that people have spent money on because they want to play it.

Like I get it, I do. We all hate JKR but let’s not ruin someone else’s enjoyment of something. You can hate the author, I know I do. You have a right to do that. You don’t have a right to be a dick. Stop being a dick as it doesn’t make you look good at all.

Like kid who comes out of a closet to a whole community who accepts him as he is, no wonder this series had and still has LGBTQ fans. Because like, one of my closest friends, she’s Trans and she’s pretty disgusted at the behavior a few of you are showing.

The franchise existed long before the author’s true intents were made public and will exist LONG after her. And if you’re someone that HP has become a comfort franchise for you then you shouldn’t be robbed of it because the author turned out to be scum of the earth.

Just choose the battles you’re fighting, because there’s actual real world issues to fight against. As a enby person, I find it ludicrous that so much attention is being given to this pointless bullshit while several states are trying to pass laws making it illegal to transition, You Know Coup's making hateful speech and rhetoric and generally transphobia is on the rise everywhere you look.

And if anything, the transphobia of the author isn’t what you should be focusing on. The game is deeply antisemitic. It involves hook-nosed being associated with money stealing children. THAT is what you should be angry about. Just some thoughts.

#hogwarts legacy #fuck jkr #jkr mention #i do not support jkr #screw jkr #But that being said choose your battles #A game is really the hill you want to die on? #antisemetism mention #antisemitism in media #Also go focus on the real world issues like states passing laws that prevent people from transitioning #Go do that

[koroktree]

Harry Potter, and JK Rowling’s antisemitism

Growing up in a non-Jewish household, I had never realised just how antisemitic Harry Potter actually is, until I had hit my teenage years and learnt about my mothers side of the family and their Jewishness. That’s the moment it hit me.

For those who, somehow, aren’t aware of what Harry Potter is, it’s a novel written by J.K. Rowling, author of many other books, and mostly known these days for her transphobia, racism, and all round bigotry.

The novels follow a 11 year old orphan, living with an abusive aunt and uncle, who had just found out he is actually a wizard, as where his parents. Here, he goes to Hogwarts, a school specifically for witches and wizards, and is shown the wizarding world. At first glance, nothing about this seems antisemitic, right?

It’s not until Harry enters Gringotts Bank, where you start to see more and more antisemitic themes. The flooring of the bank has a Star of David pattern on it. (Those who don’t know what the Star of David looks like, it’s this ✡️)

The Star of David is recognised as a Jewish symbol, as it had been almost universally adopted by Jews during the 19th-century. During the holocaust, Nazis had made Jews wear a yellow patch with the Star of David on it, as a way of separating Jews from everyone else.

Now, the Star of David being apart of the floor pattern in Gringotts bank isn’t in itself antisemitic, as it is the flooring of the actual filming location, London’s High Commission of Australia. But it’s other features, combined with the flooring, that make Gringotts Bank in itself antisemitic propaganda.

What are these other features, you ask? The goblins who run the bank. J.K. Rowling depicted them in the series as a secretive cabal of hook-nosed bankers, who maintain a contentious relationship with the wizarding world, who view them with deep suspicion. These Goblins fall into the Nazi depiction of Jews, using antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.

A lot of Harry Potter fans had tried to debunk this, and claiming it isn’t antisemitic, as the goblins fit into the fantasy world J.K. is creating, but goblins in folklore had never been found behind a desk, nor running an underground bank. And if J.K. desperately wanted goblins in her series, she could of depicted them differently.

Instead, she actively chose to give them antisemitic Jewish physical traits, such as hunched backs, large hooked noses, beady eyes, long fingers. She also chose to depict the goblins as greedy, gold loving bankers.

Banking and Money Lending has historically been a profession forced onto Jews by the churches, and then later persecuted for. J.K’s goblins are also seen as blood thirsty and viscous, and Jews have been subjected to hundreds of years of blood libel, resulting in our mass persecution and genocide.

But what else about Harry Potter could possibly be antisemitic, besides the goblins?

Harry Potter is a holocaust allegory, written by someone who is not Jewish, and who did not take the time, care, nor consideration to educate herself on Jewish culture and history.

The death eaters in Harry Potter had intentionally been written as a nazi allegory, they’re depicted as these dark, cool Voldemort followers with snake tattoos, and Voldemort himself is painted in an antisemitic light. Following along with this allegory, the muggles (non wizards) in this universe are Jews.

Muggles had been exiled from the wizarding world, and are talked down upon by the witches and wizards. How is this antisemitic? The muggles are actually different from the wizards. They have no powers. This gives antisemites a ledge to stand on, as in real life, Jews are seen as inferior species.

I am not trying to cancel Harry Potter, as I’ve accepted it’s forever going to be apart of my generation, the generations before and after me. However I wish for more people to be aware of the content they consume, and just how hurtful these themes can be towards others.

J.K. Rowling has also been actively racist in the series, but as a white person, it is not my place to speak on these issues, instead I have linked posts below talking about them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

(Any hate towards me or downright racism, antisemitism, and JK defending commenters will be blocked and deleted.)

Anything else you’d like for me to add? Feel free to reach out!

#antisemitism #jewish #antisemitic #jkr tw #anti jkr #jkr is trash #harry potter #hp #jkrolwing #Harry Potter #antisemitism in media #antisemites #racism

[marrow-minded]

idk how i feel about the usage of the word "cabal" for salems group. like i know that TECHNICALLY the word applies according the dictionary but i also know that usage of cabal can be violently antisemitic and something about the only usage of any jewish wording in show (afaik) is being applied to the evil lady secretly plotting to end the world seems....... sus

are there any jewish people in the rwde community that want to speak on this? im not jewish so im not trying to make a call to action prematurely and i dont want to overreact, i just find it weirdchamp and given rwby/crwby/fndm's racist and terrible tendencies, it wouldnt be hard to imagine antisemitism also has its roots down

#rwde #antisemitism in media #rbs appreciated

[kerakitty]

I pointed out on Facebook that The Harley Quinn Show is antisemitic and this mofo actually tried to tell me, a Jew, that I “don’t understand Jewish humor”.

#my fb pfp is a star of david with the words Tikkun Olam Means Black Lives Matter over it #it's not like he had no way of knowing I'm Jewish #antisemitism #antisemitism in media #the harley quinn show #the harley quinn show is antisemitic

[fromchaostocosmos]

IGN did a review of Hogwarts Legacy.

It was praise for the game.

Then a little aside about JKR "comments" about trans people and not a single word on the blood libel and other antisemitism in the game.

To sum up the horrible danger she has put trans people in and harm she has caused that community, the murderous people she has platformed, the rhetoric she has spewed, the dog-piling she participated in, and the hate organizations she has given money to as simply comments is disgusting.

It severely downplays the reality of what is going and the harm done to trans community.

Furthermore to not say a single word about the antisemitism that the very plot is hinged upon is absurd. How can you not talk about the racism that makes up the entire fucking story.

#fandom antisemitism #harry potter antisemitism #antisemitism #gaming antisemitism #antisemitism in media #transphobia #transphobia in media #transphobia in journalism #antisemitism in journalism

[rexs-writing]

I would like an OUNCE of good jewish representation in media

#jewish #judaism #jewish representation #we are starving #antisemitism in media

[dragynkeep]

I would just like to say that RT did apparently do a Dolph redesign. Somebody who was talking about the new episode said that the campers gave him a glow up after admitting he looked like 'him'. No idea for the other show, though. Apologies!

it's crazy like they're only now doing this when he was made with this in mind. doing all this to keep the hitler character in the show instead of just dropping him just shows how performative this shitty, racist ass company is & is only compounded with the decision to keep coco in rwby & use her to promote rwby chibi as well.

#camp camp #rwby #rwde #dolph #coco adel #rooster teeth #anti rooster teeth #antisemitism in media #ais.txt #answered #q

[magicalenbysarah]

Just a reminder to not use the word 'phylactery' for a lich's soul jar because for centuries it was just the greek word for tefillin until DnD decided to make it evil :)

#antisemitism in media #antisemitism in DnD

[transfemsamwinchester]

man they had to be antisemitic too huh. they had to have a man pray in hebrew, be deemed a slave by a former high-ranking egyptian, and then be offered gold, and GLEEFULLY ACCEPT

#the word of chuck #masons film time #antisemitism tw #antisemitism in media #ask to tag