Am I imagining the issues specific to this trope, or not?
I am massively creeped out by this trope. I think the reason for it is because, as far as I know/where I live, it's not a trope, whereas I grew up being perfectly aware of tropes such as French = elegant and sexy according to Americans, Italian = passionate and sexy according to French and Americans.
This doesn't read like 'examples of works where the stereotype is explicitly or implicitly used or played with'. Most of these read like people pointing out actors or characters in visual media who are 1) Jewish, and 2) attractive, and trying to force these two notions into one trope. It's icky and repulsive in a way that goes beyond the usual for that kind of trope or objectification, as far as I'm concerned, because of the level of sheer projection going on that page. For example, the distortion of the Leverage instance : nothing in the show even remotely implies that Eliot is attracted to the woman he’s fighting because he’s getting off on her being Jewish. (Leaving aside the issue that I don’t remember her wearing a star of David, so it’s not like we know for sure she’s Jewish, we just know she’s from Israel.) What seems to be the factors is that each recognise the other for a class A fighter at first glance, and she’s hot like burning. As far as we know, Eliot doesn’t have a history of dating Jewish women. Her being Jewish seems like a coïncidence, and in no way décisive of his being attracted to her.
Plus I get creeped out beyond words by the use of phrases such as ‘Semitic features’, especially in an article where the photo evidence shows a very fair-skinned, light-haired woman. Unless my understanding of the phrase ‘Semitic features’ is lacking, which, you know, perfectly possible. Given that it’s a very loaded phrase associated with, I don’t know, centuries of European antisemitism.
Am I overreacting, or do most of the examples cited on that page really fall more under Perverse Sexual Lust combined with a healthy dose of fetishization on the part of the tropers ?
This doesn't read like 'examples of works where the stereotype is explicitly or implicitly used or played with'. Most of these read like people pointing out actors or characters in visual media who are 1) Jewish, and 2) attractive, and trying to force these two notions into one trope. It's icky and repulsive in a way that goes beyond the usual for that kind of trope or objectification, as far as I'm concerned, because of the level of sheer projection going on that page. For example, the distortion of the Leverage instance : nothing in the show even remotely implies that Eliot is attracted to the woman he’s fighting because he’s getting off on her being Jewish. (Leaving aside the issue that I don’t remember her wearing a star of David, so it’s not like we know for sure she’s Jewish, we just know she’s from Israel.) What seems to be the factors is that each recognise the other for a class A fighter at first glance, and she’s hot like burning. As far as we know, Eliot doesn’t have a history of dating Jewish women. Her being Jewish seems like a coïncidence, and in no way décisive of his being attracted to her.
Plus I get creeped out beyond words by the use of phrases such as ‘Semitic features’, especially in an article where the photo evidence shows a very fair-skinned, light-haired woman. Unless my understanding of the phrase ‘Semitic features’ is lacking, which, you know, perfectly possible. Given that it’s a very loaded phrase associated with, I don’t know, centuries of European antisemitism.
Am I overreacting, or do most of the examples cited on that page really fall more under Perverse Sexual Lust combined with a healthy dose of fetishization on the part of the tropers ?
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though i think it's got a lot to do with the fact example on tv trope pages are often added in a very forceful ways whether they fit or not, especially when the topic is "hotness". It also has to do with the fact a lot of people posting on tv tropes wiki are deaf to possibilities of things being offensive.
The other pages of that kinds of "hot minority/ethnicity" are similarly offensive IIRC.
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