#that show has bigger issues related to jewish stuff though like theres whole articles about it. so take all that how you will | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mbat · 19 days ago

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i could say so much about this but it is kinda infuriating, and i dont know if theres a conversation about it that i just dont see people having, but it feels like 99% of the time that i see a jewish character in media, especially jewish men, theyre "weaker" in some way. and theyre even moreso never allowed to be the big strong and/or badass ones.

i saw a list yesterday that was a bunch of jewish characters in media, and there was a character on that list that i know of and have seen some of, but i didnt know she was jewish. what i knew about her was that shes seen as "weak" and shy and dorky in her show. so when i read that shes jewish, it just felt like "of course she is."

and dont even get me started on these characters being "weak" or dorky or, in the mens cases, feminine, and how it makes them the butt of the joke a lot. i could list several cases ive seen, but the main one that comes to mind is leslie berkowitz from one day at a time (2017)

i love that show. there is many things i love about that show and can praise about it, but leslies character is not one of them. hes a man with a name thats seen as a womans name, so of course they joke about that. hes "submissive" in the fact that people tend to step all over him and he just accepts it, and they joke about that. its also so weird because that show gives so much respect and understanding and empathy to every other character, but the one explicitly jewish character... is a joke?? they take him seriously very few times compared to everyone else who gets so much time to be taken seriously. and the jokes about him in particular just feel gross because theyre so... opposite to everything the show seems to stand for. like, this show literally has a nonbinary character but theyre still making fun of a man for being seen as feminine. make it make sense.

i can think of few times that ive personally seen that a jewish character was allowed to be a full on badass, and even fewer where they werent a nerd of some kind at all. i should clarify that i dont think being a nerd is bad, but obviously a lot of people have in the past considering... everything ever for the past few decades.

and hell, most of the times i can think where jewish characters have been allowed to be badass and strong were when they were written by jews. i cant speak for every single time, and my knowledge is of course limited here since ive only seen so many pieces of media, but like, isnt that just kinda wild

#my post #im tired and its late so dont take this as like. my biggest statement ever ig #i keep a list of the jewish characters ive seen and i keep a list with that thats tropes or stereotypes ive noticed about jewish characters #and dude one of the things i wrote down was characters being portrayed as 'losers' or dorky or 'annoying'#like either the audience is meant to see them as annoying or other characters see them as annoying #and that one really catches characters that otherwise dont fit any other thing on the list #like. harley quinn specifically from the harley quinn cartoon. other characters see her as annoying a lot #which makes sense because of the tone that show takes so its not like im saying it shouldnt be there #like just cause things fall under stuff on the list doesnt mean theyre inherently bad or wrong #but aside from that thing on the list she doesnt fall under anything else i have written down #actually i guess i wrote down characters being associated with new york in any way and her parents have the accent #and she takes it on while around them #that show has bigger issues related to jewish stuff though like theres whole articles about it. so take all that how you will #of my list. leslie falls under the second most amount of things. only beat out by fucking MORT GOLDMAN FROM FAMILY GUY #like thats fucking embarassing that youre second to a family guy character. like if i didnt include mort he would be first #the tropes and stereotypes are numbered btw thats how i keep track ajfhahd #oh i didnt even finish making my point about harley. my point was shes one of the most badass characters on my list #i told you man im tired im losing my ability to be coherent with every word #i hesitate to make my list public because i dont want people misinterpreting me #because at least one thing on that list is something that like. if people thought i was saying those things are inherently bad #which im not!!. then theyd be like 'dude wtf is wrong with you holy shit'. but im not saying that and i dont think these things are #inherently bad or anything. its just patterns ive noticed and some of them are pretty fucking sus. but not all of them #i could very much try to explain myself but id rather just avoid the mess altogether

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