Friendly October reminder not to put Spock or other Jewish characters in costumes with horns
to clarify: it is an antisemitic idea that Jews have horns (dating to a mistranslation of karan (shone) v keren (horns) ) which was perpetuated in art by the likes of Michelangelo. this is not a thing of the past–some gentiles still believe that jewish people have horns, and putting jewish characters in costumes/aus with horns is insensitive at best and also really fuckin gross
also do not depict Jewish characters as demons there is a very long history of Jews being seen as demons and that being used to kill us
please do not dress Jewish characters in costumes that are priest outfit or nun outfit or with crosses
Just to give y’all an idea of how modern the horn issue is: My dad, when he went to college in the early 1980’s, was asked by someone who had never met a Jew before where his horns were. In the 1980’s. My dad was asked where his horns were. This was only 30 years ago. I have been lucky not to deal with that particular stereotype in my lifetime, but that was less than a decade before I was born. And I know other Jews in areas where Jews are scarce have dealt with this much more recently than the 80’s.
Yup. When my mom went to college, her freshman year roommate woke up the first Sunday and started getting dressed for church. My mom was still in bed, so the roommate came over and woke her up.
Roommate: Did you want to come to church with me, or do you have your own church you’re going to?
Mom: Well, I don’t really go to religious services, but if I did I would go to a synagogue, not a church, because I’m Jewish.
(Long silence. My mom opens one eye to see her roommate staring in shock.)
Roommate: You … you don’t look Jewish.
Mom: (Who looks VERY Jewish) What do you mean?
Roommate: Well, my pastor always told me that Jews have horns and a tail.
Long story short: they didn’t end up getting along very well.
