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Nobody Wants This creator Erin Foster has responded to criticism that the Netflix show depicts stereotypes about Jewish women and “villainises” them.
The newly-released romcom series follows an unlikely romance between Joanne (Kristen Bell), an agnostic serial dater and Noah (Adam Brody), a progressive rabbi who has just come out of a long-term relationship.
The pair spend months navigating how to balance their intense chemistry with their differing values, and Joanne must decide whether she wants to convert to Judaism to be with Noah.
Speaking in a new interview, Foster, who based the series on her own love story with her husband Simon Tikhman, addressed criticism that the series depicts Jewish stereotypes.
When asked about this by the LA Times, she responded: “I think we need positive Jewish stories right now.”
“I think it’s interesting when people focus on, ‘Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people,’ when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed.”
She continued: “That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?”
Foster explained the difficulty of striking a balance between creativity and portraying the characters accurately.
“If I made the Jewish parents, like, two granola hippies on a farm,” Foster said. “Then someone would write, ‘I’ve never met a Jewish person like that before. You clearly don’t know how to write Jewish people, you don’t know what you’re doing, and that doesn’t represent us well.’”
While Foster’s husband is a music executive and not a rabbi, much of the storyline is based on their love story. Foster herself converted to Judaism before she and Tikhman got married, and wrote the idea down for Nobody Wants This while in the middle of the process of converting.
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She told the paper that she converted to Judaism more than four years ago, adding, “I’m Jewish, but I didn’t grow up Jewish... it’s a different thing.” She also added that purposefully surrounded herself with writers who were born Jewish when creating the series.
In the show, Joanne and Noah routinely come up against naysayers who disapprove of their relationship, particularly his mother Bina, sister-in-law Esther, his ex-girlfriend Rebecca and all of her friends (all of whom are Jewish). In it, Esther yells at Joanne, calling her a “whore” while her friends are cold towards Joanne.
In an article titled “Nobody Wants This Mean-Spirited Depiction of Jewish Women in Nobody Wants This”, TIME magazine’s Esther Zuckerman wrote that the series seems to “loathe Jewish women, who are portrayed as nags, harpies, and the ultimate villains of this story”.
Zuckerman continued: “I wanted to be swept away by a rom-com. Instead, I was faced with the reality that maybe this show actually hates me.”
“While Joanne is by no means perfect – she’s immature and messy – these brunette ladies are one-dimensional nightmares who together fuel stereotypes. They are needy, overbearing, and nasty.”
Zuckerman further writes that the non-Jewish woman, called a “shiksa”, has long been “idolised by Jewish men in popular culture”.
In a review of the show for Glamour magazine, Jessica Randolf wrote: “I can’t imagine any guy who watches this show who would then say, ‘I really want to date a Jewish girl!’”
“We come off as controlling, marriage-hungry women who want to plan dinner parties and alienate anyone who doesn’t share those same dreams.”
