Princess Long Island’ is familiar Bravo shtick

Somewhere between the flashes of wealth, prideful professions of parental dependency, Jewish cultural caricatures and frequent debauchery, acrimony and hysteria, a picture of young Jewish women on Long Island emerges on “Princesses Long Island,” the Bravo TV show that debuted on June 2, and it isn’t flattering.

In their late 20s and early 30s, the stars are immature and spoiled, Long Island told the Herald newspapers this week, and that is not how they see the overwhelming majority of Jewish women.

The show debuted to 1.24 million viewers, and now reaches 730,000 to 920,000.

Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat from Huntington, wrote that the show’s characters “fuel anti-Semitic stereotypes.”

“I will not silently tolerate a show that paints Jewish women on Long Island with all-too-familiar and painful stereotypes — money-hungry, superficial, Jewish-American princesses,” Israel wrote.

“While these shows are infantile and prurient and probably not helpful to society, we do not believe they are particularly destructive,” the ADL wrote in a statement to the Herald. “However, the use of the term ‘princesses’ has a history of being used pejoratively toward Jewish women, and it is unfortunate Bravo chose this title for a show about Long Island women who identify themselves Jewishly.”

Dr. Paula Uruburu, vice dean of the School for University Studies at Hofstra University, said “Princesses” prizes superficiality over intelligence and hard work.

“It’s all about looking good and being seductive,” Uruburu said. “What are your goals in life? Is it breast implants and Botox, or do you want to be a CEO or university professor? Where are girls’ role models today?”

Uruburu said that “Princesses” reflects a cultural shift away from the gains that the women’s movement made in the 1960s and ’70s. “The women’s movement was about empowering women, jobs, education and so on. Somewhere along the line something went wrong. If you look at traditional fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty just lies around waiting for Prince Charming to come and save her.”

Rose Veitsman, a Bellmore parent who identifies herself as Jewish, agreed that the show “portrays women in a horrible way.”

“I thought it was beyond ridiculous. I thought it was too stupid to air,” Veitsman said. “I don’t believe any of these women are as stupid as they acted on the show.”

Erica Krassner, a Bellmore resident who attends the University at Buffalo and identifies herself as Jewish, said she disliked the show’s stereotype of young Jewish women from Long Island. “Usually by your 30s you’d move out and not be relying on your parents and their money anymore,” Krassner said.

An expanded version of this story appears in this week’s Merrick Herald, and online at http://bit.ly/14yW3YM