Wednesday, March 8, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
YOU DON'T NEED A COUPON!
Legal Services Available Free With Valid KD ID Appointment Necessary 148 Burge Union (913) 864-5665 Legal Services for Students
SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY
SUMMER
SESSIONS
1·9·8·9
For a free Saint Louis University Summer Session '89 class schedule, write:
Fr. Eugene Grollmes, S.J.
Director, Summer Session '89
221 N. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63103
ARE YOU SUFFERING FROM A
TENSION HEADACHE
NOW?
Call Kathy Gorman immediately at Watkins Memorial Health Center (913)864-9595 to see if you qualify for a medication study.
FINANCIAL INCENTIVE PROVIDED
BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH GROUP
Jewish stereotype hurtful, speaker says
by Cynthia L. Smith
Kansan staff writer
The Jewish American Princess stereotype has been reinforced by jokers.
Speaking about combating the Jewish American Princess stereotype, Sherry Mertish, co-chairman of the Women's Issues Committee and vice president of the Houston chapter of the American Jewish Committee, presents a slide show with her speech. Merfish spoke last night to a crowd of 40 at the Kansas Union.
But Sherry Merfish is not laughing. Merfish, co-chairman of the Women's Issues Committee and vice president of the Houston chapter of the American Jewish Committee, spoke and presented a slide show last night to about 40 people in the Kansas Union.
Merfish's presentation was entitled, "It's No Laughing Matter: Combatting the Jewish American Princess Stereotype."
"I embodies the age-old stereotypes and hatreds that have been levelled against Jews for centuries." Mertish said. "The jokes often refer to women as asexual vultures and consumers."
consumers. Merfish said young women were especially vulnerable to the stereotype.
"Because the very characteristics that are seen as positive, when you put in the context of a Jewish American Princess are seen as negative," she said. "then women are afraid to make the most of their own potential."
Daveen Litwin, Lawrence resident and director of Hilell, a Jewish organization, said Sigma Delta Tau sorority had been stereotyped as a JAP-y house and Naishtimai Kishu called Naisten and Tokyo Towers.
Hillary Weltz, Chicago junior an- house manager of Sigma Delta Tau sorority, said she became angry when called a JAP.
when called to. "I'm not a JAP, and everything I get I work for," she said. "Nothing is handed to me."
nature to make The Jewish American Princess stereotype protrays domineering.
materialistic and overly indulged women. Merfish said.
Weltz also said she became angry when people described her sorority as a JAP house. Not all members of the sorority are Jewish.
Beth Kaiman, Sioux City, Iowa freshman, lives in Naismith Hall.
"People say I have to go over to the Steiner." she said. "Even people who live there call it that."
John Lankard, Merriam senior.
said there was some truth in all stereotypes.
"When you classify groups of people they're going to have certain characteristics that are alike," Lankard said.
He said some Jewish girls fit the stereotype and others did not.
Litwin said the JAP stereotype was not a joke.
"If someone asked me to describe one, I'd say they're a rich person whose parents buy them anything they want." Lankard said. "I try to go by who the person is first. If they show me they are going to fit a certain stereotype, then I might think of them as that stereotype."
"It's a belief, and that's what's frightening," she said.
Litwin said the jokes affected society.
"Saying these reflects the way you think about Jews and about women," she said. "Maybe somebody doesn't become a skinhead because they hear a JAP joke. But may hearing a JAP joke makes a society more accepting of them (skinheads)."
Merfish mentioned examples of JAP stereotyping on college campuses.
A humor magazine at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., advertised *Grip-Pray* "advising 'Use Raid Giorgio Spray' = Kills JSA dead" last year.
The student newspaper at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., has printed housing ads that read "No JAPS."
The pep band at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., led thousands of students chanting "JAP! JAP!" among the students were standing last year.
Proposed blood alcohol level has mixed response
bv Rias Mohamed
Kansan staff writer
said he was against the bill.
A bill before the Kansas Legislature that would reduce a motorist's legal level of blood alcohol from 10 percent to 65 percent prompted mixed responses from Lawrence officials this week.
"It's a step in the right direction," he said. "We advertise 'Don't drink and drive.' It's possible any amount of alcohol might impair your ability to drive safely."
Ron Wurtz, public defender for Shawnee County.
Response. Loren C. Anderson, Douglas County sheriff, said that the bill just adds substance to the "Don't drink and drive" message.
"I have serious problems with whether people are really intoxicated at that level," he said.
are really important. After talking to counselors for alcoholics, Wurtz said he believed that a "true alcoholic" was steadier at .05 percent than at .09 percent.
streetcar at 35 p.m. but
Wurtz said that the best way to keep the streets
safer was not to send drunken drivers to jail but to
cancel their driver's license.
"I hurts people a lot to take away their license," he said, "Sending them to jail clogs up the jail."
John Fryman, Lawrence attorney, said he was not convinced that a relation existed between motorists' blood-alcohol content and accidents.
"I would like them (supporter of .05 percent level) to show proof there is a direct correlation between blood-alcohol and the accident rate," he said. "I would like them to show that people with a .05 percent alcohol-blood level are the people out there causing all these accidents.
Jim Flory, Douglas County district attorney, said the bill was a continued response to a need for toucher laws on drunken driving.
"I don't think that there is any question that there is an impairment in driving at that level (.05 percent)," he said.
"The issue is drinking and driving. It's a policy issue that legislators must decide," he said.
SPRING BREAK NECESSITIES
BrandsMart pays your gas to Kansas City!
Must have a current K.U. ID Card*