The case for Jewish girls

What happens when Hollywood promotes geeky, Jewish males as the end -all, be-all of sexy? You get a brilliant retort from the Guardian 's Hadley Freeman. Read on...

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Why geeky Jewish males are suddenly hot property

Hadley Freeman
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The Guardian

Back when I was young enough to be forced by my parents to attend Hebrew school every weekend, the only advantage as far as I was concerned was the food. You don't know the meaning of sugar overload until you have experienced break time in a Jewish educational centre. What was not a major draw were the boys. Jewish teenage boys? Frankly, all they provoked in us girls was a big ol' Jewish shrug.

So it has come as a bit of a shocker to see these same boys suddenly become the most desirable properties on the market. Oy vay! Two of the summer's most feted comedies, Knocked Up and the upcoming 2 Days in Paris, both feature a schlubby, scruffy Jewish guy getting it on with an implausibly gorgeous blond shiksa (best line from Knocked Up - Her: "How do you get your hair so curly? Do you use product?" Him: "Yeah, it's called Jew.")

They follow the brilliant Seth Cohen in The OC, literally fighting off hot Californian babes (one of whom was actually played by a Jewish actress, though this was never mentioned), but we can trace this trend back to When Harry Met Sally, with whiny Billy Crystal laughing Waspy Meg Ryan into bed, to say nothing of Woody Allen's entire oeuvre. Perhaps not wholly coincidentally, the alpha Jewish internet dating site jdate.com is now rumoured to be swarming with goy females on the hunt for their very own Seth. Or Daniel, David, Adam or Ben.

This is all very well but several things irk. First, Jewish boys, so the cliche goes, are funny, smart, funny, geeky but still, y'know, cute and almost certainly future high-earners. Oh, and did I mention funny?

Jewish girls, on the other hand, are generally stereotyped as spoilt, nagging and well endowed in the nasal department. Jewish boys are represented by Seth Cohen. Jewish girls get Janice from Friends. In how many films has Scarlett Johansson's or Natalie Portman's Jewishness been depicted as one of their main advantages?

Then there is the tenet that a Jewish boy's highest aspiration is to marry a non-Jewish girl. I am not advocating some hardline "stick with your own" mentality, but if Seth Rogen can get Katherine Heigl, I want to see Ricki Lake getting it on with Brad Pitt. Are Jewish boys really all that? A word to you shiksas: if they were, we Jewish ladies would have all gone orthodox.