The West Coast Has its Jewish Princesses, fer sure: Misogyny, Suburbanization, and the Rise and Fall of the Valley Girl, 1982-2022

• In Event: Jewishness in the American Imagination

Abstract

Around the same time that the Jewish American Princess entered the national scene, the Valley Girl emerged on the west coast. The epicenter of the Valley Girl phenomenon was Encino, which also happened to be one of the fastest growing Jewish ethnoburbs in Los Angeles. The Valley Girl replicated many of the characteristics of the Jewish American Princess—she was vain, materialistic, and profligate with her spending. Unlike the J.A.P., the Valley Girl was sexually liberated, and she wasn’t clearly Jewish. The Valley Girl became, in effect, a crypto-J.A.P. By making explicit the implicit connection between Valley Girl and J.A.P. this paper speaks to some of the complexities and contradictions of Jewish suburbanization in Los Angeles.

Author

• Erin Faigin, University of Wisconsin Madison