On Jewish Martin Headcanons
Iâve been meaning to make this post for a while now and I finally have the energy to write it out. This was originally meant to be a much larger overview of antisemitism in the magnus archives but I only have so many spoons so hopefully, Iâll be able to write the rest out at a later date. Without further ado, hereâs a dissection of some of the tma fandomâs antisemitism, specifically when it comes to headcanoning Martin Blackwood as Jewish.
I do want to preface this by saying that this post isnât to say you canât headcanon Martin as Jewish, I only want to dissect why people are making that headcanon as well as how they view and depict him while doing so.
To put it quite simply, Martin Blackwood can fall into a lot of antisemitic stereotypes if you arenât careful or apply certain canon lenses. Between his initial meekness to his aptitude for manipulation to his relationship with his mother, there are more than a few things to be careful about. To make this simpler Iâm dividing this into âDonâtsâ and âSlippery Slopesâ
Donâts - When applied to Jewish Martin these are antisemitic stereotypes
Web!Martin has been a fan-favorite pet theory for a while now, and while thereâs nothing wrong with it in theory, it does become antisemitic when he is also being depicted as Jewish. Jewish people being manipulative, or âpuppet-mastersâ has been an antisemitic trope for centuries, implying that Jewish people control the world, reality, and all of the events inside of it, which youâll notice isâŠkinda The Webâs whole premise. There really isnât any way to make this not antisemitic, so please steer away from combining the two.
2) Fixating on his aptitude for manipulation in general
This is mostly the same as above, but you donât need to tie Martin to The Web in order to invoke puppet master caricatures. Anyone who was in the fandom at the end of season four/the hiatus will remember how many jokes there were about Martin being a âmaster of manipulationâ after he outsmarted Peter. This is also when I started seeing more and more Jewish Martin headcanons, which as much as I would like to call it a coincidence, the correlation is disheartening at best. Honestly, the only reason I donât say flat out not to hc Martin as Jewish is because the fandom vastly overemphasized his enjoyment and/or skill for manipulation. The source content itself doesnât actually imply that itâs something he does often, if it did so to even a fraction of how the fandom made it out to be, Jewish Martin would be entirely and inexcusably antisemitic. So please, if youâre gonna hc or make content of Jewish Martin, donât go and make/reblog a ton of posts about Martin being a master of manipulation, this is the one thing that has always made me personally the most uncomfortable and I canât imagine Iâm alone in this.
3) Fixating on his meekness, especially in the context of s1-s3
Jewish men being weak, submissive, and cowardly is another age-old antisemitic trope. In fact, it was so widely accepted in western society until roughly ww2 that American Jewish men who fought in ww2 were called âthe fighting Jewsâ in order to separate them from the ânormal cowardly Jewsâ. Martin definitely did a lot of doting and he could be read as meek, but that isnât the problem. The problem is when people strip down his character into a weak, cowardly man and ignore anything that goes against that. This especially goes for people making him out to be overly neurotic and only focused on Jon. It super especially goes for when people depict him this way only to reveal that it was all a front for manipulation purposes around s4-s5 (see everything above). Either way, itâs pretty gross when applies to a character you are also purposefully depicting as Jewish.
4) Include a graphic (or non graphic too tbh) scene in which Martin is the victim of antisemitism or a hate crime
I really donât think I should have to explain this one, and I wouldâve left it completely off had I not stumbled upon a (thankfully since deleted) fic that did just that. Gross!
Slippery Slopes - When headcanoning Martin as Jewish, these are some things you must be cautious about.
1) Drawing or writing Martin (or any of the other characters honestly) participating in Jewish Customs or wearing traditional Jewish garments, without properly doing research.
This really should be a given at this point, but the amount of times Iâve seen artists just randomly plop a kippah or a Chanukah sweater on Martin and call it representationâŠis unfortunate. Especially when he is drawn with otherwise completely eurocentric-goyische features. Being Jewish is far more than wearing a kippah or Magen David pin, and Iâm not saying you have to go convert to Judiasm or draw out an entire comic completely devoted to him being Jewish. All I ask is that you learn why the kippah is worn or what traditions actually take place on Chanukah (1 itâs actually not a major holiday at all, and 2 Iâve seen people draw Chanukah art where it was clear that the artist just googled âJewish objectsâ because the menorah only had 7 candleholders and there was just a random thing of matzah, but I digress) Not bothering to actually look into the culture youâre assigning the character is no better than just slapping on the label to make the character look more diverse (which I suspect is a factor in why stuff like this is so common). It doesnât hurt to drop in a few references to Jewish culture, in fact I would say that like with any marginalized group or identity, itâs truly the bare minimum.
2) Going into depth about Martinâs relationship with his mother
Besides Jewish merchants and bankers, our mothers have always been the quickest to be targeted by antisemitism. Whether theyâre nagging or overbearing, or controlling and guilt tripping. While Martinâs mother does not exactly fit the stereotype as she was more absent than anything, it is important to avoid having her being overly controlling, or focusing completely on her guilt-tripping Martin. Honestly this isnât something Iâve seen as much as the other issues on this post, so consider it a preemptive warning. Also if youâre goyische and trying to write about Jewish mommy issues accurately, donât. I can 100% promise you that if you are a goy, you will butcher it and make something antisemitic. Some things are just not necessary to include.
Please keep in mind that these are only antisemitic when applied to a Jewish Martin. While it may seem minor, I am truly tired of seeing the same caricatures time and time again, especially in a case where there are so many characters who do not carry any antisemitic implications and who are far less often headcanoned as Jewish. At the end of the day, as long as you do your research, remain respectful, and listen to Jewish people, there shouldnât be any problems.
Further reading on antisemitic tropes and tma:
wikipedia for antimsemitic tropes to avoid | wikipedia for more antisemitic trops (canards) |  @gerrydelanoâs post on why Jewish Delano-Keay family headcanons are antisemitic | @transmikecrewâs post about antisemitism in tma itselfÂ
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