Sections

Crossroads of oppression: The JAP

The description looks like a collegiate version of the Jewish American Princess. Long Island has traditionally been a place to find JAPs. Growing up in New York City, I was aware of that before I came to the University. I joined in making fun of Long Island JAPs for being from the suburbs -- clearly peripheral places, probably crowded with superficial people who had traded the city's cultural advantages for backyards -- and for shopping at "mawls" for overpriced sweaters.

We all hate the women of Long Island because, supposedly, they're rich. Their sorority houses, their expensive clothing and their strings of pearls all exhibit wealth. Long Islanders are by no means the only rich people on this campus, but the stereotype makes them look like it.

Tension over income level runs high at the University, probably higher than in most places. Through its prestige, it attracts students wealthy enough to afford private schools, and through its high rates for out-of-state students, it maintains a wealthy out-of-state population. Its in-state rates may be higher than most state schools', but they are still low enough to attract students who cannot afford private school. Add to that the fact that life at the University makes it very easy to gauge students' income level, since employment and living situations give clues to students' wealth, and you have a lot of resentment at all income levels. The women of Long Island have become the scapegoats for that resentment.

Resenting people because they have more money than you do is fairly legitimate. People who are born to wealthy parents have a leg up in life; it comes from luck, not merit. Paying tuition on a tight budget makes it clear how accident of birth can affect the quality of one's life. But singling the women of Long Island out for all the resentment due to the wealthy parts of the student body is not legitimate.

The women of Long Island are a good target for scapegoating, partly because they come from a place that is traditionally Jewish. The scapegoating of Jews for their monetary greed has a long history. The practice dates as far back as Shylock, the villainous money lender of Shakespeare's play, who took the rap for greed in a play filled with greedy people. It got particular play in Nazi Germany when Hitler blamed the Jews for the Great Depression in Germany.

Jews make good scapegoats for materialism. They are sufficiently different from the general population to be singled out, and they are often considered less refined than Gentiles. Refined rich people supposedly justify their wealthy situations by maintaining high codes of morals and behavior. The Long Island accent has been construed as both different and unrefined by University students because they are drawing on these categorizations of Jews.

Women make as good scapegoats for materialism as Jews. Women are the nation's consumers. As caretakers of the home and family, virtually all women have had to be consumers. Women exhibit more variation in dress and style than men. Men can better show off their wealth on women's bodies than on their own, since suits and ties show the money spent on them much less obviously than women's clothing and jewelry.

Because of this, conspicuous consumption has been associated with women, and when society needs scapegoats for its practice, women have supplied.

In the Jewish American Princess stereotype, Jewish women become the focus of the blame for materialism in the marriage of the two traditionally blamed categories, and Jewish men and Gentile women can get off scot-free.

The stereotype against Long Island women that University students favor also seems to exempt Jewish women from other places, especially if they don't spend too much on clothes. Hating Long Island seems more acceptable than the JAP stereotype because its anti-Semitism and misogyny are relatively covert.

But so long as we accept the hidden presence of misogyny and anti-Semitism, they are perpetuated. And they will come back to haunt us all.

-- Kate Epstein can be reached over e-mail at katebeth@umich.edu.