Fighting to become Americans
Subtitle: Jews, gender, and the anxiety of assimilation
By: Riv-Ellen Prell.
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Boston, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 319
Subjects: Jews -- United States -- Social life and customs; Jewish women -- United States -- Social life and customs; Jews -- United States -- Identity; Jews -- Cultural assimilation -- United States; Sex role -- United States; Stereotype (Psychology); United States -- Ethnic relations
Description: Why would an American ethnic group use racist terms to describe itself? Riv-Ellen Prell asks this compelling question as she observes how deeply antisemitic stereotypes - particularly gender stereotypes - infuse Jewish men's and women's views of one another.

Through her careful reading of these fluctuating yet consistent Jewish gender stereotypes, Prell offers an innovative history of American Jewish acculturation in the twentieth century.

Exploring Jewish self-representations in popular culture - magazines, fiction, sermons, films, stand-up comedy, and articles and letters in the Jewish press - Prell examines gender stereotypes like the turn-of-the-century "Ghetto Girl," the devouring Jewish mother of the postwar years, and, more recently, the "Jewish Prince" and the "JAP." Fighting to Become Americans is a provocative book for anyone interested in the dynamics that divide minority groups.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-308) and index.