Talk:Jewish mother stereotype

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Costanza is not Jewish, and there is no indication that his mother is.

• You're right; the Costanzas are Italian Catholics. I removed the reference to Costanza from the article. -Alexanderj 09:09, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
  • No, while the Costanzas are Italian they are not Catholic.
    • I thought I had read that the Costanzas were Catholic, but I stand corrected on that. However, they are NEVER referred to as Jewish, and Larry David had purposely kept their religion ambiguous. As such, Mrs. Costanza can hardly be cited as an example of a "Jewish mother," if her religion is never ever referred to, and she is supposed to be religiously ambiguous. Therefore, I've reverted your edit. Also, please sign your comments in the future. -Alexanderj 07:35, 17 September 2006 (UTC)*
      • New York, Jewish, same thing.

from VfD:

Funny, but not encylopedic. Neutrality^talk 08:16, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)

• Move to BJAODN. Susvolans (pigs can fly) 09:13, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• If it is an actual syndrome, consider a move to the wiktionary. If not, move it to BJADON Thryduulf
• Keep, it's a real stereotype; I would say stereotypes are encyclopedic. But it's not a "syndrome", so rename. And cleanup. Everyking 20:03, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. It's referenced in a paper by Richard Malott, Department of Psychology, Western Michigan University. It's clearly a term known in academic circles. GeorgeStepanek\^talk 20:37, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. Universal stereotypes are notable and encyclopedic.--Centauri 22:02, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Move to BJADON. Megan1967 04:10, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
  • Given another consideration, I dont think there is anything here worth keeping. Its current form is un-encyclopaedic, Delete. Megan1967 03:17, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Any non-syndrome referenced as a "syndrome" should be automatically a candidate for deletion. (For example: "nice guy syndrome".) -Sean Curtin 04:53, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)
• Strong Delete as a misleading, non-peer reviewed classification. This is an old joke, but it can obviously lead to unhelpful stereotyping. Wyss 04:56, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
  • Keep. You should write to Woody Allen (who is Jewish of course) to reprimand him for making a film about a nagging Jewish mother, (his segment of New York Stories). Philip 07:06, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
    • Woody Allen didn't submit an article to WP entitled Jewish Mother Syndrome, for starters. Wyss 07:25, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
      • And what else? That is a totally irrelevant non-argument. Philip 18:16, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
        • Really? You're the one who brought up Woody Allen. Are you now saying he's irrelevant? Wyss 21:16, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, not encyclopaedic. --fvw* 07:21, 2005 Jan 11 (UTC)
• Since when is this stereotype reserved for Jewish mothers? What about Asian Mother Syndrome? Delete as neologism. Alphax (t) (c) (e) 08:45, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)
  • Probably well before Dan Greenburg's best-selling 1964 book, How to Be a Jewish Mother, which popularized the stereotype. - Nunh-huh 04:40, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
  • I don't think this is intended to be considered a medical condition. "Syndrome" is a totally empty word, but there is an article to be written about the cultural presentation of the Jewish mother, and as this has been allocated to the correct category, someone might do it. Some of the votes for deletion are pure political correctness, which by definition is POV Philip 18:16, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
    • I disagree. Use of the word syndrome implies a clinical origin. Wyss 21:16, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, not encyclopedic. Jayjg | (Talk) 21:28, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Keep and s/syndrome/stereotype. GRider\^talk 22:35, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Merge and redirect to Stereotype#Common stereotypical characters. Rossami (talk) 00:06, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Merge into Stereotype#Common stereotypical characters. This is a stereotype, not a proper medical syndrome. Psychonaut 01:23, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Rename to Jewish mother or similar and redirect to Stereotype#Common stereotypical characters; that way, searches on the established phrase "Jewish mother" can find it. Acb 04:35, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)
  • Concur with Acb. At the very least, "Jewish mother" belongs in Wiktionary. -- Jmabel | Talk 18:41, Jan 13, 2005 (UTC)
• Merge into Stereotype#Common stereotypical characters. This is a well-established stereotype, but I doubt that it needs a separate article. Edeans 05:38, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

end moved discussion

Contents 1 October rewrites 2 Polish mother 3 A possible psychiatrical explanation 4 Stereotype?

[edit] October rewrites

The original article whose content was basically "Jewish mothers are great, but Woody Allen created this horrible stereotype" was pretty flawed. I changed it to be about the stereotype itself and got rid of the "syndrome" (it is not a clinical syndrome) in favor of "stereotype". I don't know if this should be kept — personally I think this is a little too close to an ethnic stereotype that, whatever its prevalence in Jewish comedy, is a little too close to other unfavorable ethnic stereotypes for my personal comfort. But anyway, I thought I would just explain myself. --Fastfission 00:24, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Polish mother

I fail to see how this is relevant to the Jewish Mother stereotype used by comedians, so I removed it. Feel free to revert, I just don't see how it is relevant. There are lots of stereotypes based on this set of characteristics, and it would be tiresome and perhaps impossible to list them all.

[edit] A possible psychiatrical explanation

Could it be that they're just trying to compensate their incapacity to protect their sons from genital mutilation? - Stormwatch 05:01, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stereotype?

As a Jew, I went down the list of characteristics and checked each one off as true. At what point does this become the kind of generalized exaggeration we associate with the word "stereotype"? Maybe it should read "Jewish mother FACTS".