Smiling

Yeah, there’s a reason for that.

Lisa Edelstein is Jewish.  As are Idina Menzel and Amy Winehouse, both of whom I have seen compared in looks to Gothel.  Gothel’s design is a pretty clear caricature of ethnically Jewish women.  

This is a pretty good contrast between Rapunzel and Gothel.  Rapunzel has the “typical Disney face”:

Here’s a more close up look at her features.

The hooked nose becomes even more pronounced as she becomes “eviler.”

If you wanted to claim that there was noting out of the ordinary for Disney animation when it came to Gothel’s features, you would have to find at least one Disney princess or heroine with similar characteristics (long hooked nose and dark curly hair, etc).

But here is what we have is -

small noses that turn up at the end:

wide, flatter noses (though cheers to Disney for not putting button noses on their characters of color, although Esmerelda’s clothing design deserves another essay on Rromani stereotypes and there are some major issues with Pocahontas as well)

And then a few misc noses (again, props for Jasmine’s nose not being a button):

Apart from just the design of Gothel, there’s also the whole: “obviously ‘other’ (read Jewish) woman kidnaps the pretty blonde (read: gentile) kid to use her for ritualistic/magical purposes”

Like that right there on top of the aesthetic Jewish-coding is what pushed the antisemitic caricature over the top for me.  It harkens back to antisemitic blood libel that claimed that Jews stole gentile children for all manner of nefarious reasons. Even when Gothel is in “mother” role to Rapunzel, she’s is shown as nagging and passive aggressive, both antisemitic stereotypes of Jewish women.

There is no one thing that makes her an antisemitic caricature, but the design, plus the storyline she plays out, plus her characterization cement the overall character as antisemitic.  

Jew-coding a villain is not in itself always antisemitic when there are also Jewish coded heroes. Rapunzel does not have that.

Having a villain steal a baby for magical/ritualistic reasons is not always antisemitic as long as the villain is not Jew-coded.  Rapunzel fails this as well.

Having a nagging and passive aggressive mother character is not antisemitic provided that she is not, again, coded as Jewish.  Rapunzel fails once again.

Hope this helps.

Jewish people don’t get that.  When we are portrayed in live action, our characters are more often than not whitewashed and in other media, our features are used and caricaturized to create “evil looking” villains.

You don’t see it because you’ve been ingrained with the idea that “ethnic” features are just “how you make a character look evil.”  You don’t look at Gothel and see your mother.  You don’t see yourself and your people.  You don’t see decades of propaganda aimed at fostering hate against you and ultimately seeking to destroy you.  

But seeing how you also seem to think that saying you’re not attracted to an entire race of people ISN’T racist, you really don’t get any say on any of this.

So really, you need to chill the fuck out and stop telling marginalized people to stop talking about the tools of our own marginalization.

Let’s play a game I like to call: Movie Villain or Antisemitic Propaganda:

Many “evil witch” tropes were built on European antisemitic stereotypes, not just in appearance but in the storylines they play out as well. Greediness, stealing children, killing children, hunger for power, etc.  Every time a movie villain design uses stereotyped Jewish features to communicate “evilness” to an audience, they perpetuate the marginalization of the people they are using. 

One big issue I have is that Gothel’s didn’t start out as the antisemitic caricature that made it to screen.  Much of the early concept art has a more dark romanticism feel.  

They changed the original design. Presumably to make Gothel more “other” from the good characters in the movie.  At some point, a decision was made that dark curly hair and a hooked nose wound better convey their villain.

It really doesn’t matter if any of this was intentional, I’d actually bet that it wasn’t.  However, antisemitic tropes are so engrained in our societies that people like you, even when confronted with a step by step break down of what it is, feel comfortable thinking that there’s nothing wrong with it and mocking those calling it out as if we are overreacting.

You seem to have completely ignored the majority of my post.  It is the character design, plus the characterization, plus the story line that mirrors blood libel that makes Gothel an antisemitic character.  It’s not just about someone of a certain race or ethnicity being a villain.  It’s about how stereotypes of a certain ethnic group are understood as “villainous” due to villains being repeatedly coded as Jewish over decades of film and tv.

On “Cancel Culture”

Direct from the head of Peacock!

They will be paying attention to how Psych does on Peacock and are willing to make a 3rd movie.

WATCH PSYCH 2: LASSIE COME HOME ON PEACOCK, WITHIN THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF ITS RELEASE (for free) ON 7/15/20!

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, GOOGLE?

I know for a FACT that this video wasn’t a scam. Talented black artists contributed to it, approved of it, made it possible. The funds in the fundraiser went (and still go to) the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). 

Is this post even going to show up on anyone’s dashboards? Am I going to get censored for speaking up about this? How many people have already seen what is going on and said something about it, only for their post to be taken down? 

This is the world we live in. This is the current internet climate. Net neutrality is gone, Trump is American’s president, and Jeff Bezos rules the market. 

Black people can’t even post their own art on Youtube as a fundraiser now. Silenced for attempting to provide a way to save the lives of their families, their friends, their communities. 

IS ANYONE SEEING THIS? 

BLACK PEOPLE ARE BEING DENIED THE RIGHT TO SPEAK.

BLACK PEOPLE ARE BEING DENIED THE RIGHT TO LIVE.

Fuck ‘Em

Listen to me, Tumblr, because apparently somewhere along the line a whole bunch of yall decided that we should just accept that whatever rich white people do as morally excusable if it happened a long enough time ago: owning slaves was evil. 

Slavery was evil. Slave owners were evil. Even if it was legal, even if they inherited their slaves, even if they weren’t as physically abusive as they could have been- all slave owners were evil.

Abolitionists existed in America before, during, and after the American Revolution. Folks KNEW. Folks knew that owning other human beings was evil. It wasn’t fucking an unheard of idea that you shouldn’t OWN PEOPLE.

Thomas Jefferson spent years raping a slave girl and then kept the resulting children as slaves. George Washington used the teeth of slaves to make his own dentures. This is not “product of their time” wishy washy nonsense. This is not “Well, EVERYONE was doing it” like drinking their cocaine and canning their food with lead. 

So yes, when you see someone pulling down a statue of Robert E Lee, or that sucking slave trader in Bristol, or Columbus, or Thomas Jefferson, and when you ask “who’s next? GEORGE WASHINGTON?” The answer should be - YES, FUCK EM. 

Slavery, especially Atlantic chattel slavery as we saw it here in the Americas, was morally repugnant, start to finish, and without question an institution of untold horror and human suffering, and ANY ONE who directly and knowingly benefited from it was a bad person. We don’t need fucking STATUES of them because they can not and should not represent the values we wish to celebrate.

Thomas Jefferson, a notable slave owner, did denounce slavery and the slave trade in the original draft of the Declaration of Independance (although he shifted the blame onto British colonial practices, which is partially true). He couldnt just simply free his slaves because he would lose his wealth and social status (which as well is rather selfish). I know you denounced it above, but you cannot deny the times were indeed different, fueled by hatred and supremacy. Its due to this problem they had to postpone the debate for several years after the Revolution in order to remain united. It was an unfortunate – and ironic – nessesity to unite againt greater tyrany.

Many of the Founding Fathers and early Presidents did commit unspeakable evils in our modern standards. This is a permanent stain that would, and hopefully never will wash off.

But instead of judging someone of their flaws and destroying that character entirely, perhaps we should instead learn of their mistakes, and build upon them. No human in history is and was perfect. But instead of focusing on their stains, we should agknowlege they were not perfect, and that they simply were the spark of hope for eventual true equality in the United States.

The Founding Fathers did commit crimes of evil, but paved the way for sufferage. Without their spark of hope, we would not be able to discuss and fight for our equality today. The BLM movement is, by extension, sparked from the Founding Fathers and their original ideals of Liberty and Justice for all.

Oh no, he would have lost his wealth and status? He HAD to keep owning other human beings, raping a child, and then enslaving his own children or else he might have been less rich? That must have been so hard for him.

You’re giving them way to much credit by the way. As though England didn’t abolish slavery first. As though the UK didn’t pass women’s suffrage first. 

It was selfish that the Founding Fathers fought tyranny upon themselves, despite being tyrannical themselves upon another population. But you cannot see human nature, society, and politics in (mind my english) black and white. If you think politics of any era could be solved and work as if on paper, then you are dead wrong.

To put societial customs of yesterday into today’s standards without context and judge it as such, that in itself is childish and inmature.

What I am saying is that we as a society need to build on the past’s mistakes, while agknowleging them as well. We cannot change the past, only build upon it.

Abolitionists existed in America before, during, and after the American Revolution. Folks KNEW. Folks knew that owning other human beings was evil. It wasn’t fucking an unheard of idea that you shouldn’t OWN PEOPLE.  

This idea that we are using TODAYS morals to judge their actions is incorrect. Even by the standards of THEIR DAY, slavery was known to be morally unacceptable, as was rape, as was pedophilia. So Jefferson had no excuse. 

And PART of the work to build on the past is to stop glorifying the racists that we have held in places of unquestioning honor for far too long.

I loathe racists and white supremesists, they have no place in our modern world. But to remove someone for only half of their character from history would not go down quietly.

While there may be people who see Jefferson as a reverant figure because he was a racist, and the people who see him as truly and undeniably evil, the amount of people who see him as a hero despite his evil flaws is far greater than both parties.

You say “Those who are in pursuit of good will fall to evil itself” (whatever the quote is), and yet, the same could be applied to you. It seems admirable to expose and destroy these statues, but there are morally good people who would see that as despicable and selfish.

There is always an opposition to a movement, be either side good or evil. If you are suprised or disgusted that people are against your ideals, then I got news for you.

History is full of inspiring, amazing, brilliant people who didnt rape underage slave girls and keep their own children as slaves.

You get to decide which historic figures deserve your awe and your reverence.

Think about why you’ve chosen this racist, slave owning pedophile rapist instead of, say, anyone who wasnt those things.

What people are saying is that you think I dont see him as a racist, rapist slave owner. I said multiple times that I know he is evil, racist, and a rapist slave owner. I outright denounce him for it. And he is personally not my hero, not even by a landslide. But instead of looking at that bigger picture, everyone is only poking at one small thing, and calling me a racist, boot-licking white supremesist. I was not at all arguing because “I am white and im offended” -

- I simply wanted to have a civil conversation. It is my human right to have an opinion and defend that opinion, however different. And my opinion is not all that far from yours. I am an avid supporter of BLM in my active life, I am in a healhty relationship with my African American boyfriend, and a proud Bisecual Eagle Scout. I am the exact opposite of the white supremesist you have labeled me as, because I had a differing opinion.

Im not angry, but I am sad that my fellow Americans are so brainwashed to despise their peers over a small difference of  the same opinion. Im sorry for you

I’m gonna give you a real quick tip: “I have a black boyfriend” is NOT a good defense when people are telling you that you’re saying something problematic. It’s just really really not. 

Multiple times in this conversation you have defended Jefferson owning slaves (saying that he didn’t have a choice because it would have cost him his wealth, saying that that’s just how things were at the time.) You also really haven’t addressed that fact that he did a LOT more than just “own slaves.” He raped an underage slave girl and kept their children as slaves.  You go on to praise him multiple times. (” I respect Jefferson because he was smart, he was dilligent. He made several inventions that we still use today.”) 

It SOUNDS like your point is that “well yes, he was an evil monster, but he was an INFLUENTIAL evil monster, so he really wasn’t that evil. We should keep statues of him around to remember all the GOOD things he did.” Like, being a serial pedophile rapist and slave owner isn’t “ one small thing” my friend. It’s kind of a REALLY BIG THING and it SHOULD undermine his legacy. It should fundamentally tarnish the way we view ALL of his words and accomplishments.

And it means we shouldn’t revere him enough to have fucking statues of him like he was a hero. Learn about him? Yes. Hold him up as a great man whom paved the way for American excellence? No.

You are ALLOWED to have an opinion. No one is calling up the cops because you said something short sighted and racist on tumblr. You’re not getting thrown into prison for being wrong, or dismissive, or frankly privileged in your assessment of history. But that also means other people get to comment on that opinion, other people get to evaluate it. This is a public forum. That’s what happens. 

You’re not in TROUBLE because of this exchange, but I would encourage you to really reflect on it. Why are you so willing to sweep aside these horrific, monstrous acts to preserve the legacy of these men? Why do you not find them so stomach turningly horrendous that the knowledge of them alone doesn’t make you hate the sight of their statues? How does your privileged position in history make it easier for you to SAY you condemn these ACTS while still being comfortable NOT condemning the people who committed them?

I agree with you 100% about the Founding Father’s sins.

I accept that I cannot change what they did and what people say about them. But I know they had an integral part of American History, so that we can have what they did not: the ability to make change.

The United States could not abolish slavery right out of the gate, due to the unstability and unpreparedness of the infant country. Their priority was to set up the platform so that later people could make change, that was their goal, and thats why I still believe in the Founding Fathers, not their personal beliefs.

I think that we need to change the context on how we display the statues, or newer statues that address both sides, that they are not gods, but just people. We have access to materials and creative ideas that they only dreamed of

That’s not an answer to the question. Why have them at all? 

We can be much more thorough in textbooks and in museum exhibits and documentaries and informational websites and any other number of teaching tools. Statues are NOT a way to teach history. That’s literally not the function of statues. Statues exist to honor and venerate. 

Man lynched in 2020.

Robert Fuller was murdered and they’re trying to cover it up ESPECIALLY now that lynching is a federal hate crime.

NO JUSTICE NO PEACE

REST IN POWER ROBERT

June 11th, 2020 Palmdale, California

City Manager J.J. Murphy acknowledged, “Maybe we should have said it was ‘an alleged suicide.’” Then he added: “Can I also ask that we stop talking about lynchings?”

WHAT KIND OF THREAT DO YOU EVEN MANIFEST THAT SIX YEAR OLD CHILD HAS TO YOU TO EXCUSE THIS???

Highly recommend this book for those concerned about the treatment of Black girls in educational institutions.

Try searching for it on Bookshop.org and help support local bookshops instead of buying from Amazon. Even better if you can find a Black owned bookshop online and buy direct from them.