Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________ ASK CAMILLE BY CAMILLE PAGLIA (01/20/98)

So Camille Paglia thinks that Jews are a sacrosanct people in Hollywood who are never satirized or stereotyped? Where has she been?
Hasn't she ever seen "Private Benjamin," wherein Jews are portrayed as food-obsessed buffoons, and Jewish women incapable of a healthy sexuality except in the hands of a virile gentile man? What about Woody Allen's many self-hating films, in which he denigrates and diminishes Jewish culture and religion?
If Camille had the slightest understanding of movie history, she would know that Jewish actors who were attractive typically were cast in gentile roles, while "unattractive" gentiles were cast as Jews. We need only consider Shelley Winters. She was never cast in a Jewish role while young and "attractive." It was only in her later years when she was overweight and gray that she portrayed Jewish characters.
How many Jewish characters in television programs have been portrayed as neurotic, sexually dysfunctional and dependent? Yet we see "attractive" Jewish actors, such as Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in "Seinfeld," repeatedly cast in non-Jewish roles!
Lest Camille be accused of a typical anti-Semitic claim, that the Jews control Hollywood, it would behoove her to learn a little more about her subject matter.
-- Joseph Braun
Of course you do know, Camille darling, that when you said: "Certain oxes will never be gored in Hollywood," you left yourself wide open to the slanderous phrase that YOU are an anti-Semite.
About 20 years ago in a Playboy interview, Marlon Brando criticized the Hollywood elite for demeaning the stupid Indian, the drunk Irishman, the sleazy, criminally connected Italian, the greasy Mexican, etc., ad nauseam, but they would never ever portray the Jew in a negative light. Brando was almost crucified, and had to make the obligatory public apology if he was ever to work again.
I, for one, am sick of seeing Christians portrayed as right-wing Bible waving fanatics in films (ever notice how a picture of Christ will appear on the wall of a mass murderer or a child molester? Has nothing to do with the plot or the story, but subliminally conveys a message).
The public is hip to your tricks, Hollywood, and so is Camille. Keep up your courageous, fearless work.
-- B.J. Sullivan
San Francisco
How and when did the phrase "Judeo-Christian" come into being, and when will people (including Camille Paglia) stop using it? As a Jew, it insults me; and I imagine it certainly would have insulted most Christians over the past 2,000 years, from Saul of Tarsus to Jerry of Fallwell. Yes, a long time ago, Christianity grew out of Judaism, but the essential worldviews of Jews and Christians are not so close today as to be summed up in that neat little phrase. Our core attitudes on God, war, sex and law are often very divergent; one might argue that Talmudic law and Catholic dogma are about as far apart as you can get. It has gotten so out of hand that there was a reference in a New York Times editorial to the "Judeo-Christian calendar"! I always thought our calendars were 3,700 years apart. There is Jewish culture and there is Christian; sometimes they converge, but more often not.
-- Steve Asdin
Paglia said, "There is no female Mozart, because there is no female Jack the Ripper."
I would like Paglia to meet Aileen Wurnos. Preferably late at night.
-- Amy O'Neal
Camille Paglia is the most insightful, incisive, talented, important writer of the '90s. Her criticisms of political correctness are repeatedly validated by the counterattacks they inspire; her creatively virtuosic rhetoric is highlighted by the numerous attempts to diminish her by discrediting her prose. Paglia's readings of culture, society and life are consistent with her readings of literature. Both are texts in which she discovers archetypal, psychoanalytic and aesthetic -- as opposed to merely politically correct -- meanings.
-- Samuel Chell
Professor of English
Carthage College
Kenosha, Wisc.
SALON | Jan. 22, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| FEAR OF FLYING WITH CHILDREN BY CHITRA DIVAKARUNI

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_______________ ASK CAMILLE BY CAMILLE PAGLIA (01/20/98)
	So Camille Paglia thinks that Jews are a sacrosanct people in Hollywood who are never satirized or stereotyped? Where has she been? Hasn't she ever seen "Private Benjamin," wherein Jews are portrayed as food-obsessed buffoons, and Jewish women incapable of a healthy sexuality except in the hands of a virile gentile man? What about Woody Allen's many self-hating films, in which he denigrates and diminishes Jewish culture and religion? If Camille had the slightest understanding of movie history, she would know that Jewish actors who were attractive typically were cast in gentile roles, while "unattractive" gentiles were cast as Jews. We need only consider Shelley Winters. She was never cast in a Jewish role while young and "attractive." It was only in her later years when she was overweight and gray that she portrayed Jewish characters. How many Jewish characters in television programs have been portrayed as neurotic, sexually dysfunctional and dependent? Yet we see "attractive" Jewish actors, such as Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in "Seinfeld," repeatedly cast in non-Jewish roles! Lest Camille be accused of a typical anti-Semitic claim, that the Jews control Hollywood, it would behoove her to learn a little more about her subject matter. -- Joseph Braun Of course you do know, Camille darling, that when you said: "Certain oxes will never be gored in Hollywood," you left yourself wide open to the slanderous phrase that YOU are an anti-Semite. About 20 years ago in a Playboy interview, Marlon Brando criticized the Hollywood elite for demeaning the stupid Indian, the drunk Irishman, the sleazy, criminally connected Italian, the greasy Mexican, etc., ad nauseam, but they would never ever portray the Jew in a negative light. Brando was almost crucified, and had to make the obligatory public apology if he was ever to work again. I, for one, am sick of seeing Christians portrayed as right-wing Bible waving fanatics in films (ever notice how a picture of Christ will appear on the wall of a mass murderer or a child molester? Has nothing to do with the plot or the story, but subliminally conveys a message). The public is hip to your tricks, Hollywood, and so is Camille. Keep up your courageous, fearless work. -- B.J. Sullivan San Francisco How and when did the phrase "Judeo-Christian" come into being, and when will people (including Camille Paglia) stop using it? As a Jew, it insults me; and I imagine it certainly would have insulted most Christians over the past 2,000 years, from Saul of Tarsus to Jerry of Fallwell. Yes, a long time ago, Christianity grew out of Judaism, but the essential worldviews of Jews and Christians are not so close today as to be summed up in that neat little phrase. Our core attitudes on God, war, sex and law are often very divergent; one might argue that Talmudic law and Catholic dogma are about as far apart as you can get. It has gotten so out of hand that there was a reference in a New York Times editorial to the "Judeo-Christian calendar"! I always thought our calendars were 3,700 years apart. There is Jewish culture and there is Christian; sometimes they converge, but more often not. -- Steve Asdin Paglia said, "There is no female Mozart, because there is no female Jack the Ripper." I would like Paglia to meet Aileen Wurnos. Preferably late at night. -- Amy O'Neal Camille Paglia is the most insightful, incisive, talented, important writer of the '90s. Her criticisms of political correctness are repeatedly validated by the counterattacks they inspire; her creatively virtuosic rhetoric is highlighted by the numerous attempts to diminish her by discrediting her prose. Paglia's readings of culture, society and life are consistent with her readings of literature. Both are texts in which she discovers archetypal, psychoanalytic and aesthetic -- as opposed to merely politically correct -- meanings. -- Samuel Chell Professor of English Carthage College Kenosha, Wisc. SALON \| Jan. 22, 1998