Jewish Stereotypes, Woody Allen, and the Magnificent Cultural Studies Oeuvre of Sander Gilman

A few months back, I took the time to tip my sombrero to John Leguizamo for the influence his one-man shows had on my work back in the day of snow and ice, when Ithaca, New York, was my home and Manhattan a playground of sorts. Now it's time to pay my debts again and to single out the landmark cultural studies work of Professor Sander Gilman, who used to hang his mortar board in Ithaca and now works courtesy of Coca-Cola lucre at Emory University. No doubt it was the whispered genius in the pages of his work that suggested to me the link between Jewish-American animators like Friz Freleng and Mexican figuration (Speedy Gonzales)--the foundation of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucination of the "Mexican" in America.


All this as a preface to this odd tale off of Defamer regarding American Apparel, Jewish Stereotypes, lawsuits, and Woody Allen that fell into my stumbleupon browser this morning courtesy of Michael Wyatt Harper, a professor at Mount San Antonio College and regular Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog contributor. mazel tov American Apparel for taking a break from your Barely Legal-style ad onslaught for your paean to Hasidic figuration.