Jewish Mother Stereotype

Jewish Mother Stereotype

The Jewish mother or Jewish wife stereotype is a common stereotype and stock character used by Jewish and non-Jewish comedians, television and film writers, actors, and authors in the United States. The stereotype generally involves a nagging, loud, highly-talkative, overprotective, manipulative, controlling, smothering, and overbearing mother or wife, who persists in interfering in her children's lives long after they have become adults and who is excellent at making her children feel guilty for actions which may have caused her to suffer. The Jewish mother stereotype can also involve a loving and overly proud mother who is highly defensive about her children in front of others. Like Italian mother stereotypes, Jewish mother characters are often shown cooking for the family, urging loved ones to eat more, and taking great pride in their food. Feeding a loved one is characterized as an extension of the desire to mother those around her. Lisa Aronson Fontes describes the stereotype as one of "endless caretaking and boundless self-sacrifice" by a mother who demonstrates her love by "constant overfeeding and unremitting solicitude about every aspect of her children's and husband's welfare".

Read more about Jewish Mother Stereotype:  Origins in Jewish Immigration To The United States, Development of The Stereotype in 20th-century Popular Culture, Reception in The Middle 20th Century, Decline in The Late 20th Century and The "Jewish Grandmother"

Other articles related to "jewish mother stereotype, stereotype, jewish mother, jewish":

Jewish Mother Stereotype - Decline in The Late 20th Century and The "Jewish Grandmother"
... According to Alisa Lebow, in the late 20th century and 21st century the stereotype of the Jewish mother has "gone missing" from movies ... on the part of screenwriters or film-makers to rewrite or change the stereotype, in pursuance of some revisionist agenda, but that it has simply fallen back a generation ... The Jewish mother has transformed into the Jewish grandmother, or bubbe ...

Famous quotes containing the words stereotype, jewish and/or mother:

    “All official institutions of language are repeating machines: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact, the major figure of ideology.”
    —Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

    “I got it! The lead, the idea, the angle. It’s the way, it’s the only way. I’ll, I’ll be Jewish.... I’ve even got the title: “I Was Jewish For Six Months.””
    —Moss Hart (1904–1961)

    “No mother is so wicked but she desires to have good children.”
    —Italian Proverb.