First, it was all about the jokes (What does a Jewish American Princess make for dinner? Reservations!), then came the (well-deserved) backlash against negative stereotypes. Now it’s all about, uh, empowerment? According to the Boston Globe, JAPs are making a comeback.
“To some, JAP is just the latest slur to be embraced as a means of self-empowerment, much the way gay culture adopted ‘queer’ and African-Americans use the n-word. JAP’s comeback may signal a new era in identity politics, one in which Jewish women, feeling victorious after battling the double burden of misogyny and anti-Semitism, peel away many aspects of the old stereotype-the snobbishness, the dependency on daddy’s Amex, the sexual frigidity-and keep… well, the shoes and the Chanel.“
In other words, it’s okay for Jewish girls to call each other JAPs, but coming from outside the tribe it’s still an insult? We’ve spent most of our lives trying to prove that in spite of our expensive orthodontia and penchant for running up credit cards that we’re not some shallow clich