tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post1554737538276307438..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: Vows, the Gary Shteyngart versionPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-4990586842781253642011-07-12T08:28:46.447-04:002011-07-12T08:28:46.447-04:00* is it fetishization* is <i>it</i> fetishizationPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-78115475563115827872011-07-12T08:27:33.561-04:002011-07-12T08:27:33.561-04:00JTL,
I, along with a few otherwise-reasonable peo...JTL,<br /><br />I, along with a few otherwise-reasonable people I know, really like "The Nanny." It's brilliantly-written, for one, well above and beyond what those who just know about the show would expect. As for the Fran persona herself, I see her as more of a modern "belle Juive" but with (for lack of a better term) agency than as a sad-sack cliché (ala Grace from "Will and Grace," Rhoda, etc.). Rather than being too repulsive for Jewish men, she's a sex object for British pseudo-aristocrat Mr. Sheffield. <br /><br />Part of why this works is that Fran's not a "JAP" - she's from a much more modest background than any of the non-Jewish characters on the show, save Niles the butler, whom you'd be forgiven for confusing with Niles the brother on "Frasier," except that he's the butler. But the main thing is that it's precisely her "Jewish" strangeness that Mr. Sheffield's attracted to. He doesn't like her <i>despite</i> the big hair and accent - the big hair and accent have rendered the flat hair and non-nasal voices of other women bland. <br /><br />I mean, is fetishization, and negative from that angle? Kind of, but because it's always clear that Fran Fine/Drescher is 100% in control of the situation, I tend not to cringe. And given the disparity in the culture today between representations of Jewish men fetishizing "the shiksa" and Gentile men fetishizing "the Jewess," maybe the occasional, if crude, example of the latter doesn't hurt. Maybe.Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-2116922192562375122011-07-12T08:13:03.088-04:002011-07-12T08:13:03.088-04:00"As a Fran Drescher fan"
Expliquez, s&#..."As a Fran Drescher fan"<br /><br />Expliquez, s'il-vous-plait. I have a hard enough time imagining *anyone* being a Fran Drescher fan, though obviously there are some such people. But you, with your attention to portrayals of Jews, women, and Jewish women in popular culture? What is it about her schtick that could possibly amuse rather than outrage you?Jacob T. Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02575549001627195334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-4373778032858479022011-07-03T09:24:53.847-04:002011-07-03T09:24:53.847-04:00Tichina Arnold, who was/is the best thing about &q...<i>Tichina Arnold, who was/is the best thing about "Everybody Hates Chris"</i><br /><br />Yes. She also had a great voice role in a Boondocks episode, "Attack of the Killer Kung-Fu Wolf Bitch."PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.com