Do Shiksas Have More Fun?

My friend Peter has been asking me for my thoughts on the Sunday Brunch conversation. So many things to write about, so little time… But here’s the low hanging fruit:

Statement: Jewish guys are irresistibly attracted to shiksas (non-Jewish, gentile-looking, i.e., blond, blue eyed, women). Is that true? Do they prefer shiksas?

Well, Marilyn Monroe, the classic shiksa, claimed that men preferred blonds. I can’t argue with her success – with men in general and with Jewish men in particular… Yet as a Jewish brunette, I maintain that all other things being equal, Jewish men are attracted to me at least as much as they are attracted to shiksas, maybe even more. On the other hand gentile men are attracted to me a little less. Why? Because for most of them, I’m an odd bird…

Harper’s Bazaar April issue has an article from a brunette who dyed her hair blond as a fashion experiment. Her conclusion? Men don’t necessarily prefer blondes. But there’s something in blondes that brings out the jerk in some men… Hmmm, there’s probably something in the shiksa that brings out the jerk in some Jewish men – famously, in Philip Roth’s Portnoy, who ends up trying to marry… a Jewish girl.

Which reminds me of what a Jewish lawyer friend of mine once told me, while commenting on the fancy Boston law firm where she worked. She claimed that gentile male lawyers were a lot more comfortable with Jewish female lawyers than with gentile female lawyers. And why? Because, she said, they weren’t comfortable around female lawyers. Period. But to them, Jewish women weren’t really women…

And all this brings me to my favorite dumb blond joke:

What do brunettes do on a Saturday evening?

They sit around telling dumb blond jokes…