Hebrew Heroine Deficit
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Sarah Seltzer August 25, 2009
To go along with controversial Jewish-revenge flick “Inglourious Basterds,” Newsweek’s Sarah Ball drew up a list of butt-kicking onscreen Jews including serious foes like the protagonists of “Munich” and “Defiance” and silly ones like “The Hebrew Hammer” and Zohan. It’s a cute list, but as Leah Berkenwald at Jewesses with Attitude points, out, all these Hebrew heroes have one thing in comon: They’re men. She writes:
Surprise, surprise, there are no Jewish women represented. At all. What’s going on here? Are there no films featuring kick-ass female Jewish characters? To be honest, I’m having trouble thinking of any.
The commenters at JWA had trouble coming up with an answer for her; although they mentioned real life heroic Jewish women, from Golda Meir and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to female Mossad agents, it is hard to find female counterparts to the male characters on the Newsweek list.
Sure, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz have played their share of action heroines, but none of those characters were markedly Jewish. As commenter Oksana pointed out [Spoiler Alert!] Basterds’ character Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent, photographed above), who’s lost her family and vengefully torches her own movie theater in order to kill all the Nazi officers inside, is one of the more badass, active Jewish women onscreen of late. “She’s better at this Jewish-vengeance business than the titular characters, and she’s an amateur, as it were,” writes Oksana.
I’d love to see more characters like Shosannna, perhaps some showing up in slightly less violent films. But it doesn’t look like a ton of other “butt-kicking” Jewesses are in the running for such roles. Instead, the buzzy film featuring Jewish ladies onscreen is “Black Swan,” which is going to feature a steamy same-sex hookup between Jewish thespians Portman and Mila Kunis, playing rival ballerinas. It’s unclear if their characters are going to be Jewish.
While their male fans are excited to see two pin-up worthy Jewish women in one film, and the film may be great (Director is Weisz’s husband, Darren Aronofsky), it’s my fantasy to see more specifically designated Jewish female characters on the big screen — characters that are strong and assertive without necessarily being moms, neurotic funny ladies or “exotic” seductresses.
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