Brenda and Midge: The Intersection of Jewish Women and Post-War Economy in “Goodbye Columbus” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

• In Event: Jewish Women Strike Back: Tracing and Reclaiming Jewish Women in Film and Television

Abstract

This paper examines two representations of post-war Jewish womanhood, separated by almost fifty years. The Hollywood feature film Goodbye, Columbus 1969) portrays a Jewish girl on the cusp of womanhood, while the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2018) depicts a Jewish woman facing the end of her traditional role as a young wife. Both offer a reading of how Jewish women are made to represent the intersection of economic relations between gender and Jewishness.   Goodybye, Columbus and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel draw on familiar themes and tropes, even as they differ.  Both revolve around post-war upwardly mobile American Jews, and portray women as ornaments, reflections of a consumer culture, and keepers of cultural convention, just as they also show women challenging sexual and cultural norms.  They emphasize traditional gender roles with men as producers, just as both Brenda and Midge are freed from those roles through strong connections to a cultural Other from the working class. Without people who stand outside their social class, neither woman would develop as a character.   The differences between these images of American Jewish womanhood, real and apparent, suggest that the image can continue to be effectively “read” at the nexus of culture, work, sexuality and gender.  They reveal how economies are represented on the bodies of Jewish women through the rewards and consequences of their relationships with their fathers, mothers, partners, and work relationships.

Author

• Riv-Ellen Prell, University of Minnesota