Jewish Masculinities
I know: it's not what people expect to hear about from a raging, raving feminist. But I think the (de/re)construction of masculinity is definitely a feminist issue--it may be one of the most important one we have on the horizon. The way I see it--which is, admittedly, not the way most people see it--the feminist movement(s) really have accomplished a great deal, not the least of which is a very real awareness of the complexity of gender, especially for women. Well, let's make it women and queerfolk, anyway. But there hasn't been any corresponding men's movement. (For more on all this, check out Brendan O'Sullivan's article in BITCHFEST.) If you don't think this is so, ask yourself why "gender studies" programs are not only generally about women (and sometimes queerfolk), but they're expected to be populated by women and the non-gender-normative. It's sad, really, and something better be done soon, because the options are pretty limited for the dudes out there.
So, that said, let us move on to Jewish masculinity. On oft-cursed thing, that J-masc, and very much tied to what's gone on with Jews since the 1800s. It should be noted that I recently read The Jewish Woman in America, and since it's pretty impossible to talk about the evolving roles of Jewish women without the corresponding roles for Jewish men, it's a pretty instructional read for those interested in this topic. To ruthlessly paraphrase, Jewish gender roles didn't really evolve into what we might consider a typically Western framework while in Europe. (Please note! I'm talking about Ashkenazim here, who laid much of the framework for American Jewish society and certainly are the basis for generalizations about "American Jews", regardless of how relevant such generalizations might be to specific communities within America. I think much of what I'm about to argue could be applied to Sephardic communities that continued living on the European continent post-Inquisition--namely that of the Balkans--but for Sephardim of Northern Africa, and Mizrachim, much of this essay doesn't apply. I'm sorry. I'll come back to you another day, I promise. Let me read some more first.) The evolution of these anamolous gender roles has both intrinsic and extrinsic roots. No one, I think, can deny that literacy and scholarship are Jewish values. Once in Diaspora, Jews tended to invest whatever autonomous power they were allowed in their religious and learned leaders. Simultaneously, there were power systems that denied Jews economic progress (and sometimes livelihood) through land-based means. To grossly generalize, these two factors set the Jews apart from the feudal/peasant societies of Europe. Jewish women assumed roles, economic and, correspondingly, social, that allowed them to thrive as the breadwinners for many European Jewish families. The overt, the public, the money-handling, the pushy--all were "female" and not particularly valued by men, whose worth, although it could be achieved via wealth, was really only validated through learning and piety.
Whew. Okay, so this unexpected system of gender roles climbs into steerage and hauls ass over to America, where it is totally antithetical to the upwardly-mobile among the immigrants--it prevented assimilation into the American bourgeois. Within a few generations, we have the pervasive image of the weak yiddishe yingele--effeminate, small, thin, pale, bookish, meek, etc. (Not to mention totally domineered by his incredibly aggressive mother and/or wife.) And you have writers like Philip Roth just ripping into this material, propogating it and spreading it along. Certainly parts of this image had roots in reality, but it was blown truly out of proportion and into something that stuck pretty well.
Zionism helped both keep such images alive as well as give Jewish men and boys a means by which to reclaim their "manhood" in, ironically, a more Western-acceptable way. (Often, there was a kind of parity between Zionism and Socialism in the social change they engendered among Jews, but in this case, I think Zionism wins the prize. The refashioning of Hebrew probably helped, but the real coup d'etat came in Zionism's eventual ability to include the vast majority of religious Jews. It opened up the possibilities for so many people.) Eli taught me a lot about this topic when we were sophmores in college: a lot of his interest in Jewish stuff seems to have emerged from a rejection of this emasculated male image and the desire to refashion Jewish manhood.
But after spending a week reading Etgar Keret and Shalom Auslander, two contemporary Jewish writers who each liberally apply scathing humor, I'm hopeful. Both of them seem, at least, to have transcended the gender-obsession of, say, a Philip Roth--their humor, all about poking fun, isn't particularly preoccupied with how a Jewish man should deal with the vital conundrum of being an emasculated Jewish male, but rather on the gallows humor and delight in the somewhat cruel absurd that has marked truly fine Jewish literature for centuries. Good stuff.
ANyone who's read this blog or, you know, talked to me knows that I could stay up and fight gender stuff out until the churchbells chime for morning (oh, Brooklyn). But I don't think I will right here--not enough time. I leave you with the thought of: how might be improve ourlives by taking some time to consider the baggage that comes along with our gender identities. Jewish men in America are only just now looking for a place to rest their worries--we can help with directions along the way.
kol tov....
So, that said, let us move on to Jewish masculinity. On oft-cursed thing, that J-masc, and very much tied to what's gone on with Jews since the 1800s. It should be noted that I recently read The Jewish Woman in America, and since it's pretty impossible to talk about the evolving roles of Jewish women without the corresponding roles for Jewish men, it's a pretty instructional read for those interested in this topic. To ruthlessly paraphrase, Jewish gender roles didn't really evolve into what we might consider a typically Western framework while in Europe. (Please note! I'm talking about Ashkenazim here, who laid much of the framework for American Jewish society and certainly are the basis for generalizations about "American Jews", regardless of how relevant such generalizations might be to specific communities within America. I think much of what I'm about to argue could be applied to Sephardic communities that continued living on the European continent post-Inquisition--namely that of the Balkans--but for Sephardim of Northern Africa, and Mizrachim, much of this essay doesn't apply. I'm sorry. I'll come back to you another day, I promise. Let me read some more first.) The evolution of these anamolous gender roles has both intrinsic and extrinsic roots. No one, I think, can deny that literacy and scholarship are Jewish values. Once in Diaspora, Jews tended to invest whatever autonomous power they were allowed in their religious and learned leaders. Simultaneously, there were power systems that denied Jews economic progress (and sometimes livelihood) through land-based means. To grossly generalize, these two factors set the Jews apart from the feudal/peasant societies of Europe. Jewish women assumed roles, economic and, correspondingly, social, that allowed them to thrive as the breadwinners for many European Jewish families. The overt, the public, the money-handling, the pushy--all were "female" and not particularly valued by men, whose worth, although it could be achieved via wealth, was really only validated through learning and piety.
Whew. Okay, so this unexpected system of gender roles climbs into steerage and hauls ass over to America, where it is totally antithetical to the upwardly-mobile among the immigrants--it prevented assimilation into the American bourgeois. Within a few generations, we have the pervasive image of the weak yiddishe yingele--effeminate, small, thin, pale, bookish, meek, etc. (Not to mention totally domineered by his incredibly aggressive mother and/or wife.) And you have writers like Philip Roth just ripping into this material, propogating it and spreading it along. Certainly parts of this image had roots in reality, but it was blown truly out of proportion and into something that stuck pretty well.
Zionism helped both keep such images alive as well as give Jewish men and boys a means by which to reclaim their "manhood" in, ironically, a more Western-acceptable way. (Often, there was a kind of parity between Zionism and Socialism in the social change they engendered among Jews, but in this case, I think Zionism wins the prize. The refashioning of Hebrew probably helped, but the real coup d'etat came in Zionism's eventual ability to include the vast majority of religious Jews. It opened up the possibilities for so many people.) Eli taught me a lot about this topic when we were sophmores in college: a lot of his interest in Jewish stuff seems to have emerged from a rejection of this emasculated male image and the desire to refashion Jewish manhood.
But after spending a week reading Etgar Keret and Shalom Auslander, two contemporary Jewish writers who each liberally apply scathing humor, I'm hopeful. Both of them seem, at least, to have transcended the gender-obsession of, say, a Philip Roth--their humor, all about poking fun, isn't particularly preoccupied with how a Jewish man should deal with the vital conundrum of being an emasculated Jewish male, but rather on the gallows humor and delight in the somewhat cruel absurd that has marked truly fine Jewish literature for centuries. Good stuff.
ANyone who's read this blog or, you know, talked to me knows that I could stay up and fight gender stuff out until the churchbells chime for morning (oh, Brooklyn). But I don't think I will right here--not enough time. I leave you with the thought of: how might be improve ourlives by taking some time to consider the baggage that comes along with our gender identities. Jewish men in America are only just now looking for a place to rest their worries--we can help with directions along the way.
kol tov....
posted by Di Freye Froy at 1:20 PM
1 Comments:
You write very well.
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