When considering this year’s options, we realized Today is International Women’s Day (and the Women’s General Strike). And so, here are a list of Jewish women you should portray for Purim (though anyone of any gender can rock these looks!).

Specifically, these are fictional women, because 1) Reality is too weird and surreal right now, 2) These figures are culturally iconic, and 3) Someone at that party is already going to be the Notorious R.B.G., so you might as well go a different route:

Cher Horowitz belongs at the top of this list. Do we need to explain why? As if! Good luck picking just one look, though we suggest the yellow plaid. Besides, now is her time:

Baby Houseman from Dirty Dancing, OF COURSE! Wear a tank top and jean shorts, or capris with a shirt tied above your navel. When in doubt, carry a watermelon. Make a male partner wear all black and generally look like Patrick Swayze. Everybody wins. Bonus points for doing the lift.

Rebecca of York (from Ivanhoe) isn’t as big of a name as some of the others on this list, but she’s A) great and B) an excuse to recycle your garb from the Renaissance Faire (if you’re the type of person to choose this costume, you already have the dress). Plus, real life icon/Jewish woman Elizabeth Taylor played her— consider it a layered reference.

Batwoman, the superhero alter-ego of Kate Kane, is both Jewish, and gay— did you know? Rock the bodysuit. She has an A+ cape:

Kitty Pryde is another Jewish superhero (her queerness isn’t canon, but boy are there some convincing think pieces), and she has the benefit of changing her costume every freaking five minutes. Your possibilities are endless. And pretty please, someone, anyone, do the costume where she wears striped thigh-highs and roller skates.

Once, for Purim I dressed as how Kitty Pryde would dress if she were Wolverine for Purim. Yes, really:

Willow Rosenberg is the last niche, geeky choice on the list. But she’s a great one— gay, Jewish, a literal witch. Bonus points if you’re Vampire Willow (which also works if you have dark hair rather than red).

Fran Fine. Beehive. Leopard print. Nasal impersonation that will get you kicked out of a party. Go kill it.

Rhoda Morgenstern is one of the most important Jewish women on TV— way before Rebecca Bunch or Grace Adler, and boy did she have style. Find your most 70s shirt, and tie a scarf on your head. Voilà— an homage to Valerie Harper.

We confess that this list is disappointingly white— Jewish fictional characters skew way more homogeneous than we actually are, and rare Jews of color in media tend to be male. But there is Cristina Yang from Grey’s Anatomy who’s both Asian-American and Jewish (and scrubs and a name tag make for an easy costume). And written fiction offers significantly more options, like in the fantasy world of Shira Glassman (also, bonus points because it’s super queer). It’s not as obvious a choice as Cher, but we have to build our icons somehow.

Pretty please tweet us pictures of your costume! And hurry— you only have a few days left!

Images via Wikimedia, except for the embarrassing one of the writer, via Facebook.

The post Iconic Fictional Jewish Ladies to Emulate for Purim appeared first on Jewcy.

There are certain TV theme songs that anyone in their 20s would recognize (and possibly start singing) from the first line: “This is a story all about how/my life got twist-turned upside down” or “Whatever happened to predictability/the milkman, paperboy, evening TV” or “When I wake up in the morning/and the alarm gives out a warning.”*

For me, the top lyrics on that list would be: “She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens/When her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes.”

Thus begins the story and adorable cartoon that kick off each episode of the ‘90s TV classic The Nanny.

Basically, Fran Fine (Fran Drescher) is a nice Jewish girl in her late-20s from Queens, who’s dying to get married, has big hair, a larger-than-life accent, brightly-colored suits with animal prints and giant shoulder pads, and the loudest, and let’s just say most distinctive laugh you’ve ever heard. Somehow, she accidentally gets hired as a nanny by handsome, posh British Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy).

Her qualifications, according to the theme song? “She had style, she had flair, she was there!” Not exactly a glowing recommendation, but it’s pretty true. Before taking care of the three Sheffield kids—Margaret (Nicholle Tom), Brighton (Benjamin Salisbury), and Grace (Madeline Zima)—she went to cosmetology school, was a foot model, worked in a bridal shop, and sold makeup door-to-door. In other words, Fran had no experience with kids. Yet, somehow, she managed to keep the kids alive for six seasons, and dispense stereotypically Jewish advice like “never pay retail”—Fran is obsessed with discount department store Loehmann’s—and “date doctors.”

Episodes of The Nanny often seem like one big Yiddish joke, especially when Fran’s relatives show up. Fran’s mother, Sylvia (Renee Taylor), is a binge-eater—especially when the food is free—while her grandmother, Yetta (Ann Morgan Guilbert), is senile, loves bingo, and generally has no idea what’s going on. Sylvia and Fran are always arguing, while Yetta is just comic relief. This conversation from a Season 3 episode in which the family goes to therapy sums up their relationship:

Therapist: So ladies, what brings you to therapy?

Fran: I came because my mother has an obsession with me getting married.

Sylvia: I came because my daughter has a delusion that I have an obsession.

Yetta: I came because they brought me and I don’t know how to get home.

The best thing about Fran, and probably the reason she became such a popular character, is that she’s so proud of who she is. The Nanny is a classic fish-out-of-water story. Fran couldn’t be more different from Mr. Sheffield, with his Upper East Side mansion, butler, and kids in private school. She definitely admired their lifestyle, and yet, there was no way she’d ever change. Fran never succumbed to a makeover, even if Fran’s hair got straighter as the years went on, and while her voice became “normal” for a few seconds after eating wasabi, she never expressed hang-ups about it.

While the kids love Fran the way she is almost immediately, and butler Niles is always mildly amused by her and soon becomes her good friend and partner-in-mischief, it takes Mr. Sheffield more time to warm up to her demeanor. Of course, they wouldn’t have hired someone as handsome as Charles Shaughnessy to play the boss if Fran wasn’t going to hook up with him, and finally, at the end of Season 3, Mr. Sheffield tells Miss Fine he loves her. Drama ensues, and they don’t become an official couple for another season, but eventually they start calling each other “Maxwell” and “Fran,” get married, and in the series finale, they have twins.

Not bad for a shop-girl from Queens—oh, and her mother was happy, too.

*Do I really need to tell you? The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Full House, and Saved By The Bell.

Previously on Network Jews:

Noah Puckerman, the coolest Jew in school on Glee

Andy Botwin, the promiscuous playboy on Showtime’s Pot Comedy Weeds

Saul Berneson, the CIA Middle East division chief on Homeland

The post Network Jews: Fran Fine, the Nasal-Voiced Star of ‘The Nanny’ appeared first on Jewcy.