This is sort of just a rambling piece of thought, but not unrelated to the readings...probably most closely tied to Esposito's piece on "
An Analysis of Privilege and Postracial(?) Representations on a Television Sitcom" if I had to pick one? But as a longtime fan of the Gilmore Girls-centered podcast "Gilmore Guys" I was listening to their recent spin-off, "Maisel Goys." I was really interested in the latest download this week, which was a special non-episode on the representation of Judaism in the show. The guest (just a fellow fan/listener/Jewish studies girl) spoke about how her background as a Jewish woman informed her viewing of the show and how it depicted specific aspects of Jewish life in the 1950s, and it reminded me of how Esposito handled the discussion of Marc, the gay white man who Betty competes with for the prestigious internship in Ugly Betty. "We're privileged at the same time as we're prosecuted," as the "Maisel Goys" guest describes it. Of course, these are different circumstances--gayness is not an ethnic identity, and nobody in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is forced to confront their white privilege in any capacity (a staple of Amy Sherman-Palladino's work), but I thought Maisel was an interesting sort of counterpoint to the discussion of TV shows among the three articles for this week, especially in a world where references to "New York values/sensibilities" as coded for Jewish culture abound (called ashkenormativity, I also learned--a somewhat contested term).
Reading Phil's post reminded me of this part of the podcast in particular:
"Jews weren't considered white people when we came to the United States, and it's one of my biggest pet peeves when other Jewish Americans who now walk through the world as a part of this privilege -because really if we changed our names and our jewelry, you might not know - forget that we were allowed to be white people when Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics were added to who was considered white to try and reinforce Jim Crow America."
I don't really have any super grand or eloquent conclusions for this, but these are just some things on my mind I guess.
Thanks for the post Sasha. You're definitely right about how none of the characters in Mrs. Maisel are confronted in any way with their white privilege. The scene in the season that really illustrates this well is when Midge stumbles across a protest in Washington Square Park against the redevelopment of downtown Manhattan and quickly becomes the center of the protest after expressing surprise that such a thing was happening seconds before. I think this scene encapsulates the developing racial privilege some Jews are gaining at the time.
ReplyDeleteOne hesitation I have about the critique is that the process of Jewish assimilation into whiteness is really incomplete during the time the show takes places in. So while Midge represents a very upper (west side) class Jewish sensibility that is contrasted with Joel's more Jewish working class aspirations, all of this is happening in the context of a changing culture of anti-semitism. Even well-to-do Jews like Midge are denied access to white spaces, which lead to the development of culturally specific forms of comedy and humor that characterize the "Borscht Belt" comedians that Midge's character is based on. I do, however, think the show would be much more interesting and reflective of contemporary cultural politics if it dealt with race and burgeoning privilege more head on.
Some interesting book on the subject are Sherry Ortner's ethnography, New Jersey Dreaming, and Karen Bodkin's How Jews Became White Folks. The podcast Treyf did an interview with Bodkin that was pretty good which you can check out here: https://soundcloud.com/treyfpodcast/25-white-jews-whiteness