BLOG: Disney's first Jewish Princess presents opportunity to reclaim "Jewess" slur

In recent years, Disney has made efforts to diversify the backgrounds of its princesses.

It has Pocahontas, a Native-American princess; Jasmine, a Middle Eastern princess; Mulan, a Chinese princess; Tiana, an African-American princess; and most recently, Moana, a Polynesian princess.

Disney announced Sept. 17 that it will be adding another to the list with its first Jewish princess. The Jewish princess, who has yet to be named, will be Latina — more commonly referred to as Sephardic (ספרדית) Jewish — featured on the Disney Channel series “Elena the Avalor” in December, according to Disney Channel.

The television episode will be centered around Hanukkah (חנוכה) — an eight-day-long Jewish festival that commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. The holiday has been popularized in recent history because it typically coincides with Christmas.

The announcement is also particularly rewarding to the Jewish community because

Walt Disney, founder of the Disney Corporation, was known as a vicious anti-Semite, which did not escape the ideology in some of Disney’s content.

The Jewish princess will be voiced over by Jaime-Lynn Sigler who is an actress of half Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish, commonly dubbed "ashkephardi," and half Cuban descent.

While the increasing diversity among Disney princesses has helped debunk Eurocentric beauty standards and increase cultural representation, a Jewish princess also poses a unique opportunity for Jewish women to reclaim a term that has been used against them for decades: princess, itself.

Jewess or Jewish-American Princess, commonly dubbed as JAP, are common derogatory second-degree slurs aimed at Jewish women who are deemed high-maintenance and materialistic. The term also plays into the larger long-held stereotype that Jews are greedy and control the world.

Inclusion among Disney princesses is far from the first time a Jewish princess has been represented in pop culture, and it often has not been in a positive light. Most well-known is a song by Frank Zappa titled, you guessed it, “Jewish Princess.” Just a share a few of the grotesque and anti-Semitic lyrics:

“I want a nasty little Jewish Princess/

With long phony nails a hairdo that rinses/”

“A horny little Jewish Princess/”

“I need a hairy little Jewish Princess/

With a brand new nose, who knows where it goes/”

Hopefully, you get the point. The song embodies the JAP stereotype exactly: a shallow and materialistic girl desperately seeking validation who is over-sexualized, yet also critiqued for being hairy and having a big nose at the same time. Desirable, yet repulsive.

The announcement of a Disney Jewish princess poses a broader question for the Jewish community: can we reclaim the term “Jewish Princess”?

As more positive representation of Jewish woman has come into mainstream culture, including characters Abbi and Ilana in the popular Comedy Central series “Broad City,” some have suggested that this is the time for us to reclaim the term.

My take is that this time seems fitting. As Princess Cinderella would say, when the shoe fits, wear it.

Maybe now it the time for Jewish women to start wearing their crowns, proudly.

Cover image from Amy Humphries/Unsplash