Is Hanukkah Sexy?
A shirt that appears to actually exist. Image by Screenshot
When I first saw a story on the Cut arguing that Christmas should not be made sexy, my first thought was that Dan Savage has been arguing this for years. My second was, of course, whether Hanukkah is sexy. Or, indeed, whether anyone’s trying to make that case.
And the answer, to the second question, is, kind of? The Schlep Sisters are still performing Hanukkah burlesque. And a mildly NSFW 2008 post declares one Jewish woman “the sexiest menorah ever.”
Any holiday involving candles and not necessarily not involving wine could, I suppose, get the “sexy” treatment. That said, my own observance involves a kind of atavistic compulsion to fry potatoes. And there’s nothing especially sultry about either latke preparation or, I venture to say, latke consumption. So my vote would be that Hanukkah, while delightful, is not sexy.
Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at bovy@forward.com. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.
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