The concept of guilt has been connected historically to Jews and Christians. Pilate washed his hands of it and got on with his life. No Heaven, no Hell, no Purgatory.

However, guilt is a God-send for the health care industry.

The card hardly makes sense, with our diet crazy culture, we are told to be guilty of eating cake and ice cream. When I was at Weight Watchers we were told to be careful of indulging even on our birthdays. Especially since the high heeled shoe makes the card specific to women.

Ever looked at the "Mahogany" section in a Hallmark?

It should be pointed out that Jewish Guilt as the idea is constructed is very different from Christian concepts of guilt. Catholic and Protestant guilt is framed in the context of religious shortcomings, i.e. temptation and so forth. Jewish Guilt is framed as familial, especially in context of "overbearing" mothers. So while Catholics feel guilty that they'll never be godly enough, Jewish guilt refers to the fact that no matter how much a Jew achieves, his or her mother will always be there to say, "Nu, so what? You don't eat enough."

I've heard people talk about the western framing of Jewish guilt in the context of Western sexism, because it's often framed by Westerners and assimilated Jews as the Jewish male being emasculated by an overbearing mother, and as a result, Jewish men being unable to perform maleness in its full arrogant form. A lot of American Jewish literature addresses this issue, for example, this is the central theme of Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint.

The idea that Jewish guilt is pathological comes not from Jews, but from Western non-Jews, who used to ally this claim with stereotypes that Jewish women were promiscuous, ugly, etc. So, Jewish women were denied femininity as a result of weak Jewish men, Jewish men were denied masculinity by boisterous Jewish women, and as a result, no Jewish man or woman who ever achieved anything could possibly appreciate their triumph the way a goy, with their strictly-policed gender norms, could.

The fact that Jewish comedians appropriated the concept of Jewish guilt, and the fact that the term no longer has the overt antisemitic and sexist tones it used to have, doesn't mean that the term is equivalent to the feelings of guilt other groups of people have.

Not only is the card not very funny but the guilt concept is wrong. The cliche isn't that Jews suffer from generalized guilt; it's that we have the specific guilt of disappointing our parents (mostly the mother).

So if the inside had something like "going out partying on your birthday instead of staying home to call your mother should never be one of them", that would have made seem more like a "Jewish" card.

This is a pet peeve of mine, though I'm not sure exactly why. I hate when people say things like, "I have a bad temper because I'm Irish!"

People who identified their background as Italian, Greek, Jewish, Polish, and others all believed that the way their family interacted was a unique custom of their ethnic group. Yet they all described pretty much the same characteristics.

Logical fallacy. Just because someone Jewish says that their loud, boisterous family is typically Jewish doesn't mean that they're saying it's "uniquely" Jewish. Jews tend to be more boisterous than, say, WASPs or Germans or Japanese in familial interactions, and so the ethnic label makes sense, but it's not a unique trait, as the same boisterousness can be attributed to Italians, Greeks, etc.

I mean, if I say there's fur all over my furniture because I own cats, that doesn't mean it's unique to cat ownership; dog owners have furry couches too. But I am correct to point to the cat as a corellary.

Also, there's the stereotype that Jews are crass and unrefined.

The card could be seen as reinforcing the stereotype of the "Jewish American Princess." Notice the high-heeled slipper and the allusion to lots of shoes; the "spoiled" Jewish woman who spends lots of money (implicitly, daddy's or her husband's money) on clothes, etc. I'm not saying this was intentional, but that this could be the consequence.

Given assimilation, the female recipient of the card receives the message sent to so many women: be thin. Oh, it's your birthday, so "calories don't count." And that means: they DO count every other day of the year.

The Jewish stars are part of marketing. Without the stars, the card could be marketed just as well to other women, especially white middle-class young/ish women, who are all made to feel guilty for consuming/buying too many goods (shoes) as well as consuming too many calories. Then again, if she doesn't buy enough feminine-wear, she'll be told she isn't attractive. Double bind.

I find it problematic that this is entitled "connecting guilt to ethnicity," as being Jewish is not an ethnicity.

The Martian gets it. The analysis in the thread is disappointing - especially since it misses the obvious. Even worse are the responses - it's clear that no one else gave it a second thought and regurgitated the analysis.

Late to the party here, but I suspect that the reason cards like this are designed and marketed is for non-Jews who are ignorant and xenophobic and think Jews are so different and exotic that Jews would need a Jewish birthday card. These folks go to buy a birthday card and think, "crap, I gotta get a Jewish birthday card for this person, because s/he's Jewish, so I can't give the normal kind, because it will offend the person or won't sufficiently wish happy birthday in the way that Jews do, oh, and I noticed that such-and-such-store sells Jew cards, so I better go there!" The people who buy such things are aware of difference as difference, and probably assume that the inside of a Jewish household and the daily life of Jewish people, even reform Jewish people, is so completely different from their life. To the extent that Jews give Jew birthday cards!

(FWIW, I actually would be really touched if someone gave me a birthday card that ACTUALLY included meaningful Jewish elements, like a quote from a notable rabbi or religious poet, or some Jewish artwork. But I'd be pretty pissed to get this card that doesn't even make sense and plays off of sexist and familial stereotypes, and I'd think the person who got it for me was an idiot since they apparently thought "oh, she'd like this since it's a JEWISH card!" without giving thought to the rest of my whole person, who loves my Jewishness, but hates things that are ugly, don't make sense, are tokenizing, are sexist, etc.)

Gwen, honey, and the rest of you....Good God please get over it! This is a card that jokes about the FACT that when we eat lots of cake and ice cream (like at a birthday party) we get fat, feel uncomfortable, don't look our best, and sometimes health issues. This stuff is delicious and we tend to over-indulge, hence a feeling of guilt. It has NOTHING to do with Jew, Catholic, Baptist, God, or Global Warming. Are you really so politically oriented that you see some hidden stereotyping conspiracy in something this simple and straight forward?

Maybe guilt is only connected to ethnicity even though it may in fact be the same across various cultures and ethnicities because--as this blog constantly reinforces--culture and ethnicity are performed and enforced. Without that enforced performance, we would have no distinct cultures or ethnicities, just one big hodge podge of individual predilections? I don't know if that's really reasonable, but its the logical conclusion of what appears to be the ideal outcome for many and something to think about. Further, if it is reasonable, would it be a good thing? I don't know--just throwing it out there to provoke thoughtful responses.

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