Abstract:
This qualitative exploratory research investigates how Canadian Jewish girls
understand the discursive stereotype of the Jewish American Princess (JAP), and how
they take up these understandings of the J AP in relation to their identities. Three focus
groups and six interviews were conducted with girls attending Jewish high schools in
Toronto, Canada to explore these questions. From a third wave Jewish feminist
perspective, and taking a mediated action approach to identity, two analyses were
conducted. A thematic analysis of peer relations, gender, community, and religious
understandings demonstrates how aspects of individual identities mediate interpretations
of the JAP. A series ofpor t rai t s of JAP-related identity were constructed to analyze how
the JAP discursive stereotype also functions as a cultural tool that is taken up by the
participants to mediate expressions of their identities. These findings establish the
contradictory ways these Jewish girls describe, interpret, and utilize the JAP discursive
stereotype, and the complex roles it plays in their social worlds.
