That JAP…

I was appalled at Alana Newhousc’s article, “The JAP: Reclaim Her or Reject Her?” and disappointed with Miriam Stone’s “The Shame of the JAP” [Summer 2005].

There is reason why feminists “waged battles again the JAP stereotype for years.” What is a JAP, anyway? A frigid “girl” who demands and expects her father to give her anything she wants materialistically—from clothes to a nose job—and expects her mother to do anything laborious that she needs—from cooking and cleaning to babysitting at the drop of a hat. She was a materialistic, shallow person who only thought of herself Is this admirable? Is this what Ms. Newhouse found to “feel so right?” Let us not forget the “JAP baiting” on college campuses, when Jewish girls were not only made fun of, but had items pelted at them during football games and [heard] jokes about “the only good JAP is a dead JAP,” and “what do you call 49 JAPs floating face down in the river? A start.”

The stereotype was so prevalent that Jewish men wouldn’t even attempt to date Jewish women. Not only is this an insult to Jewish women, but it is isolating—and it left fewer Jewish men for Jewish women to marry.

Think about it: No other ethnic group would allow their women to be stereotyped in such a derogatory manner. Why should Jews?

I am left scratching my head as to why Lilith would even consider publishing such an article. I think Lilith owes Jewish women and the Jewish people in general a huge apology.