The Two Types of Goblincore
Iâll begin by saying that Iâm a Jewish archaeologist, and one of my main areas of study is the pogroms of Eastern Europe during the beginning of the 20th century. This affects the way I think of goblincore in two major ways:
Goblins were used as a negative caricature of Jews to tother them and incite negative feelings and violence among non-news
I have been accused of only wanting to be an archaeologist so that I can dig up and hoard shiny things
I spend a lot of my time looking at images like this one. Itâs an antisemetic political cartoon from 1898.Â
Look at the crown, the long, hooked nose, and most importantly the clawed, webbed hands. His hands envelope the world, symbolizing the perceived universal greed of the Jew.
This stereotype of the greedy Jew didnât originate in the 19th century either. It goes all the way back to the Middle Ages when Jews in Europe were banned from occupations other than banking.Â
So now letâs talk about goblins in popular culture. First and foremost in my mind are J.K Rowlingâs goblins who are portrayed as greedy, hoarding andâ you guessed itâ in charge of the money and treasure.
There are even physical similarities between J.K. Rowlingâs goblins and the political cartoon above. Note the hooked nose and the hands.Â
I was about eight when I read the first Harry Potter book. I remember bringing it to a synagogue event where one of the adults remarked about how uncomfortable the goblins made them. Before I was allowed to watch the movie my mother sat me down and explained what was problematic with those goblins and why.
He has the crown and the hands, although not the nose, and while he bares less direct resemblance to that cartoon, this is still an example of antisemitism. This is a placeholder character for a Jew that is disgusting, hoarding wealth, and a direct antagonist to the main characters.Â
(I found another image where this character was specifically labeled The Goblin Banker but tumblr wouldnât allow me to upload it for whatever reason.) This goblin is so other that itâs not even recognizable as a person, and in fact in the game theyâre classed as a Mob Race. Yikes. Additionally, Wikipedia describes them as âattempting to - unsuccessfully - forge gold coins, and yet they have no intention spending any of this money, they simply wish to âhaveâ it.â This goes along with a lot of the greed aspect of goblins and their obsession with hoarding.
First, I want to say that just because these pieces of media (or any others) have these problematic aspects doesnât mean that you have to stop consuming and enjoying them. If we never read books or watched movies or played games that were problematic we would back ourselves into a corner where nothing was permitted.
The important thing is to educate yourself to the point where you can recognize the negative caricature/stereotype in something that you come across, and to not create any new media containing the stereotype.Â
But what if you really like goblins?
The good news is that this is the first, older kind of goblincore, but itâs not the only one out there. Thereâs a new wave happening that emphasizes the positive things without including the negative ones. These next examples are technically called trolls in their respective universes, but they really get the vibe that Iâm going for.
See? Shiny treasure thing, delight, and no malice. Admittedly the trolls in this movie are some funny looking creatures, but they donât come across as perpetuating the negative Jewish stereotype to me.
Cute little guys made of stone and moss. They live peacefully, and when they encounter the protagonists they have a nice musical number and then dispense some wise advice. No greed, no bad intentions. Good for them.
(Again, these examples are both technically trolls but I think the idea comes through, especially since theyâre so far from the large, lumbering brutes that are trolls in say⊠Harry Potter or LOTR.)
Now Iâm going to hand this conversation over to @goblinblogging who is a Jew working on reclaiming and reworking the idea of what a goblin is and what a goblin does.
Now, I know learning that something youâre doing could be problematic is scary! I also know that a ton of people have abandoned goblincore just because they learned of these stereotypes.Â
However, you donât have to abandon something you love! What you need to do is educate yourself and learn about why these things are harmful and learn what you can do to make sure you arenât doing something harmful yourself!Â
Letâs start off with how this stereotype came around (Or at least, one way it originated.) In the book Knockers, Knackers, and Ghosts: Immigrant Folklore in the Western Mines, the author goes into detail about how European origins say the goblins of the mines were the ghosts of dead Jews, sentenced (in properly medieval anti-Jewish fashion) to perpetual restlessness for their supposed role in the crucifixion of Jesus. Which is where the âGoblins live in caves and minesâ came from!Â
So this explains that the ghosts of Jews became goblins because they were being punished for killing jesus. Already a pretty rough start! Now for common goblin appearances that are nothing but antisemitism in disguise. First, and most obvious, large, hooked, warted noses. I donât really feel like I have to go into much detail about this one. Anyone who took history class in middle and high school should know about Hitlerâs propaganda against jews and the depictions of their bulbous noses, often covered in warts. This caricature directly translates over to goblins having their predominant warted noses. Second, Letâs have a look at green skin. Hitler in particular loved to depict jews with green skin, or at the very least, in very green light so it turned their skin green.Â
Notice the green tint, the evil sneer, hooked nose, and pointed ears in this one! All very reminiscent of traits we commonly see in goblins.Â
 This last one is a movie poster âSuss the Jewâ produced by Terra Film at the behest of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and considered one of the most antisemitic films of all time. Notice the green skin!Â
 Next is horns and teeth. Hitler in particular would depict jews with devilâs horns hidden under their Kippah (also referred to in Yiddish as a yarmulke, or less frequently as a koppel.) Heâd also just depict them outright as demons.Â
This one is Ukranian. Translated means âSatan has taken off his maskâ Notice how âsatanâ has huge teeth and horns, red skin, with the star of David carved into his forehead. Also notice how his jewish mask has a large nose.
This one is from Russia (1919), a caricature of Leon Trotsky, who was viewed as a symbol of Jewish Bolshevism. Notice the red skin and pointed ears. Also notice how heâs sitting above the people down below (who are sitting on skeletons and bones) symbolizing the Jewâs greed, which weâll get into later.
And then thereâs this one, where you can see (white) people inside of the Jewâs mouth, you can also see horrendously sharp teeth crushing them. Also pay attention to the large nose and pointed ears. I just remembered that I forgot to cover another very important anti-jewish facial feature, which is that many jews in propaganda have dark beady eyes and drooping eyelids. These are things you can see for yourself in the images above!
Next, weâre moving on to greed. This one in particular hits me close to home. Iâve heard the phrase âJewing me out of my moneyâ too many times to count. Or alternately, âDonât be a Jewâ when the other person doesnât think that Iâm giving them enough of what they want. (Could be money, could even be sweets. The first time I heard this phrase I was a little kid and I had a bag of skittles. I wanted to share with everyone but I still wanted to have enough for me to eat myself. I was passing out handfuls when my friendâs older brother (he was a teen) didnât like how much I gave him. He said to me, âCome on, donât be a Jew, give me some more skittlesâ. I didnât understand and when I asked my mom what it meant later she was horrified.) Jews, and their caricatures, have almost always been viewed as greedy and power hungry. As @whalefromwales said above me, Jews in Europe used to be banned from any job besides banking.Â
We also have images like this from WWII:Â
Anyone who has taken any class where the Holocaust was talked about should be able to recognize this image, The Eternal Jew. He has money in one hand, which is reached out to demand more - heâs also looking at the money, and a whip in his other hand. In his arm, he holds the whole country of Germany.
There is also this one. A jew, tinged with red, weighs a manâs life against a large pile of money. Notice also how heâs looking at the money - not the man.Â
And this one should also be easy to recognize. It reads âThe Jews - A People of Contagion!â A city burns in the background as a jewish man sits atop a pile of bones counting his money. Notice the bulbous, hooked, nose, black eyes with drooping eyelids, and large hands! Hitler depicted jews this way (and as goblins) in order to segregate us. âUs VS Themâ. âWe are the Good Human Beings and Jews are monsters!â in order to make it easy for him to begin committing the atrocities that he did! It never happened overnight, there were key stepping stones that built up to concentration camps. One of those was âJews arenât really people, so itâs okay that weâre doing this to them. Weâre doing it to save us, the Good Christian Germans.â Â
So what does all of this mean? Well, first and foremost, it means that you have to be careful how you depict your goblins. How? When drawing your goblinsonas or goblin ocs, stay away from drawing them with huge, hooked, and warted noses, donât make their skin green or red (personally, I prefer grey skin for goblins.) If your goblin has sharp teeth, donât make them huge and obvious. Because modern goblins are fair folk, itâs difficult to depict them without pointed ears, but try not to exaggerate the proportions. Â
Behavior: Stop with the âgreedy little goblinâ thing. That DIRECTLY comes from jewish stereotypes. Your Goblins are allowed to collect shiny things they find, but donât make them greedy about it! Have your goblin share what they collect, make it a community effort. Sharing the things you love is way better than being miserly anyhow, and sharing more represents what we as goblins should want in our community! Also, be careful with your goblins being terrors. Yes, there are usually evil beings in every single race (whether mythological or real) but just be really really careful. Hitler loved to depict jews eating the Good Germans(âą) or terrorizing communities. So even if your goblin is an evil one, be really really careful and be sure to educate yourself first so youâre not just perpetuating the same tired shit that Hitler did.Collecting coins.Â
Now, this has been a huge topic of discourse lately. Coins are shiney! I understand why people would want to collect them. Hell, I have some awesome 50 cent pieces and gold dollars in my collection. You just canât depict  yourself or your goblin character collecting only coins and being very greedy with them. Thatâs literally doing nothing but echoing the same propaganda that Hitler used against us. Collect them all you want, but if I see âGreedy little goblin hoarding coins all for themselvesâ I swear Iâm gonna hit the fan. To clarify, you can absolutely show off you coin collection in the goblin tags, just be careful how you frame it. âIâm really interested in history, so I collect old coins because I think theyâre neatâ is waaaaaay different then âHorrible littel crecher is greedy for shiney moniesâ (That last quote is something Iâve SEEN in the tags, luckily op was just completely unaware of why that was so wrong and they removed the caption after they were educated.)Â
 So please, enjoy being into goblincore. Enjoy the culture and the fantasy. Goblincore is about appreciating the things about us that may be depicted as âweirdâ or âuglyâ. Goblincore is a safe haven for neurodivergent people (Iâm Autistic!) and also Trans and other LGBTQIA+ people! Itâs a culture for appreciating nature, collecting things that may not be seen as normal, and sharing these things with other people. Itâs a culture where you shouldnât be ashamed to be who you are or afraid to get dirty. Goblincore is a support network for the weirder folks where we strive to uplift one another. Goblincore is wonderful and Iâve been so impressed at how welcoming everyone is! Especially on tumblr! Before the discourse happened, I was sure that goblincore was one of the kindest communities on tumblr. However, I understand why the discourse happened, and goyim in the goblincore tag really did need to be educated, but that doesnât mean you have to leave! So be sure to educate yourself and be aware of how your actions could negatively affect folks. Listen to other Jewish people and be mindful of what they say. Some Jews are very uncomfortable with goblincore, and for very good reason! And I do not claim to speak for all Jews with this post.Â
I am trying to reclaim the word goblin for use by any person who wants the label. I no longer want these fantasy creatures associated with such a beautiful and vibrant culture of people. Goblins are very interesting as a fantasy race, but the negative stereotypes do nothing but hurt real life Jewish people. Which is why Iâm hoping that folks will read this post and realize what behaviors and depictions of goblins are wrong and harmful. Also, tag your goblincore appropriately! Again, many Jewish people are uncomfortable with goblincore because of antisemitism that has happened in their past. Iâve been compared to a goblin many times! So keep your goblincore in just the goblincore tags. There are many overlaps between goblincore and other micro communities on tumblr (Such as crowcore, cottagecore, naturecore, and vulture culture) but be mindful of what youâre putting in those tags. Most vulture culture people hate us goblins cuz we put pictures of dirt or âIâm just a smol crecherâ in their tags, and I donât blame them! Vulture culture is only for the remains of dead animals, and dead animal remains should be the only things added to those tags. So fellow goblins, Iâm going to end this post with a sincere thank you for reading, be mindful of your actions, and most of all, HAVE FUN with goblincore!Â
Here is where you should be able to read Knockers, Knackers, and Ghosts for free if you want.
TLDR: This is what we, as Jewish people, mean when we say that goblins are based off of negative stereotypes of jews. This is also why some jews get really upset at goblincore, however, there are many ways to participate in goblincore without using harmful stereotypes! So please, use this post to educate yourself so you can both be good goblins and good Jewish allies.
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