(no subject)

[geminigirl]

Was I too harsh?

Comments

[margoeve.livejournal.com]

I don't think you were harsh enough.
Back in my Teenage years we had a term for the likes of this one: JAP... Jewish American Princess.
People like her make me sick.

Though - I do bitch about gifts too... usually when I've asked for people not to get me "stuff" (ala things I won't use and that will collect dust). I'd rather have a good dinner or a date with someone than more crap.

[geminigirl]

I thought it might not be wise to use JAP in a Jewish community; they tend to look down on ethnic slurs like that. But it's true.


"I'm Jewish because Xmas sucks"-what the fuck?

She reminds me of almost every girl I went to Hebrew school with, and high school with and all that. That stuff they say about Long Island Jews...it's not always false; I come from the land of proof. Thank goodness I avoided most of that.

[margoeve.livejournal.com]

You're originally from LI too???

Yeah, I was always ousted from that "in princess crowd" - in hindsight, I thank god for it... I still have my humanity in tact as a result.

[geminigirl]

Ward Melville High School class of 93. I grew up in Setauket, my parents are still there, in the house I grew up in. (If you've got AIM and want more info, AIM me-it's in my userinfo or e-mail.)

[geminigirl]

Oh, and I never was a princess. I had other things going on, and was too busy and uncool. But look how I turned out.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I went to HANC in Uniondale, across the street from Hofstra University. We had one boy in our class that when he'd miss the bus his dad would send him to school in the family limo. One day I was telling JAP jokes to one of our Israeli teachers and we were laughing and having a great time. A friend of mine came over and (in that NY Jewish LI whine) said "Stop laughing you guys, that actually happens at my house!" We fell over laughing harder and couldn't walk.

I love gifts. At Chanukah my sisters had the tradition of giving me one gift that was seperated in to 8 parts and I'd get one a night. One year it was a jigsaw puzzle. I got the edge pieces on the 7th night and the box on the 8th.

I admit some years I get bummed at my gifts but the way it was phrased annoyed me too.

[fairion.livejournal.com]

Oh what a wonderful tradition. Very creative.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

No, you weren't too harsh on her.

When I was growing up, "JAP" (for "Jewish-American Princess") was a word that Jews often used to refer to other Jewish people who were particularly spoilt... there wasn't a sense of ethnic-slur offensiveness about it, since it was an "in" term - kind of like "queer."

It was in such common usage, in fact, that I didn't realize that it wasn't a term that everyone knew and understood. I was once complaining to a high school friend about a 3rd person who was "*such* a JAP!" and my friend looked hurt and said "But I'm Japanese too." Whereupon I apologized profusely - it hadn't even occurred to me that people used JAP to mean a Japanese person. Since then, I've been a lot more careful about where and when and with whom I've used the term.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I simply shorten it to "princess."

Reminds me of the Doonesbury cartoon, where Zonker meets Mike's office manager Marcia at a royal wedding in Britain, and they are chatting.

Z says "Aren't you some kind of royalty yourself?" "Who, me? No," says Marcia. "Yeah - yeah - he said you were some kind of princess! Turkish! No - Jewish!"

[geminigirl]

I always took JAP to be an ethnic slur, even though when we used it, it wasn't restricted to Jewish people-"so and so is so Jappy" even if so-and-so isn't Jewish. I never really used it much, either. I do recall my sister, when she was in third grade, writing a story called "I was a third grade JAP," not realizing at all what the negaitive connoations of JAP were, and writing an actual story about a girl who finds out she's a princess, etc.

I hadn't thought about that in years. Wow.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Good grief, no. If anything, not harsh enough. Sheesh. :-)

[xrew.livejournal.com]

Not even close to harsh. That girl, besides being completely spoiled rotten after getting a bunch of very nice gifts clearly needs to learn more about the nature of giving & receiving. I'm not even going to address the Chanukah or Judaism issue due to her totally offensive statement.

I agree with everything you said. Hell, she should be happy to receive anything, from anyone, especially with that attitude.

[lcohen]

not hardly. what a whiner.

nope

[yix.livejournal.com]

not too harsh...damn...and i thought some Christians were all obnoxious about gifts on Christmas. It's weird that she would post in a community...It's one thing to post in her own journal....

[geekchick]

Uh, no. Not at all. Sheesh.

[aynjel.livejournal.com]

Not even remotely too harsh...

[geminigirl]

I thought the mods might have something to say. I toned it down from what I'd originally wrote.

But I apparently wasn't the first, nor only one to think it.

[zenmondo.livejournal.com]

Also think you were not harsh enough. But now I really REALLY want to read what you originally wrote!

[geminigirl]

I deleted it. But I basically called her an ungrateful git with a serious lack of understanding of her chosen faith, that her post reflected poorly on Jews and perpetuated negative stereotypes and wanted to know what positive contribution she's made to the world other than whining lately.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Either she's a complete troll sockpuppet, or she's really like that. If the former, eh - people are stupid. If the latter... that's somehow much worse to me.

Put me squarely in the camp of "She could use some further verbal slapping around." Yeesh.

[geminigirl]

I checked out her actual journal...she's really like that. I don't think she's a troll.

Feh.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Eeeewwwwww. *hiss*

[quillon.livejournal.com]

I don't think you were harsh enough. Not only would it be offensive to someone who is Jewish, it would be considered offensive to someone who was truly Christian, because the gift-giving portion of the holiday is not what its supposed to be about, no matter how much we've been spoon-fed by capitalism that its about "getting stuff".

And this is someone who considers himself to be "ex-Christian".

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

No, you most certainly weren't! Being Christian(ish), I don't whine when I don't get Hanukah gelt - ye gods, people are ridiculous! Not to mention, her listed present haul seemed perfectly in line with what an adult could expect to receive, regardless of religion, for holiday gifts. Pretty generous, actually. What a whiner.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That was part of what really got me. She had a huge haul, in my opinion. It does somewhat boggle me the amount of money people spend on gifts, and I spend far too much on gifts myself. But her tone was off even if she'd gotten next to nothing. A bunch of money and clothes and jewelry and a movie? Seems quite generous to me.

[katishna.livejournal.com]

Harsh? Uh, no. Too nice, IMHO. That girl is so shallow that if her toes got wet with thought she'd drown.

[gsh]

That girl couldn't get a clue if she covered herself in clue musk, and did an clue mating dance in the middle of clue season.

[geminigirl]

I think you get the prize for most creative response.

:)

[gsh]

Being honest, I have to admit I stole that line from Davo.

[fortryll.livejournal.com]

THAT is the funniest thing I've read in the past hours of trying to get caught up with LJ.

Thank you!

And for the record, you weren't harsh enough. But I was like her once. Then I grew up and faced the harsh reality that nobody else would save my ass unless I did it myself. Either she'll eventually learn, or she'll slowly lose any essence of what makes her truly "her" by giving it all up to buy some fake security through marriage or job or some such nonsense.

No, I'm not crass. Not me. :)

[wait.livejournal.com]

Bwhahaha...

Between you and swerve!!!

No. Looked like a troll to me.

[geminigirl]

I checked out her journal. Unless her whole journal is a troll journal, she's really not. That's the scary part.