Jewish Musings, Wednesday, August 23, 2023

[peachymom1]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[peachymom1]

Good morning! DH and all three kids all love superhero movies and TV shows, and they spend a lot of time discussing them and enjoying comparing their experiences. I, on the other hand, don’t like superhero shows at all, with the exception of the two Wonder Woman movies with Gal Gadot (but once was definitely enough to see each of them).

DH and the kids tell me they like superhero movies/TV shows for the same reasons most people do: action, fun, cool costumes, favorite actors, and seeing the good guys win. I get it, but I still don’t care for them. I know I’m in the minority, or maybe I’m just a stick-in-the-mud. I don’t like blood and gore, and I can do without most of the general violence anyway, even if the good guys do come out on top. At any rate, the kids have started using the term “Mom-friendly” for movies that I like or they think I’d be OK with, and they all agree that superhero movies are “not Mom-friendly.”

What about you? Do you like superhero movies? Do you have favorites? What appeals to you about them, or what turns you off about them? Am I the only one who doesn’t like them?

[lee058]

Good morning! Hope you are all well and SAFE!

Re today's topic: I have mixed feelings about superhero movies. I dislike the way that many women are portrayed, physically and as sidekicks. OTOH, I really enjoy movies that show strong women! I LOVED the Wonder Woman movies; I really like Gal Gadot. DS has a crush on her; he always wants to watch the movies when they are on TV.

I laughed at the "Mom-friendly" tag. I also strongly dislike blood, gore and general violence in movies, and bad language is enough to keep me away from many movies too.

What I do like about movies and TV shows is seeing the good guys win, and justice and righteousness prevail. We need as many positive images as possible!

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[hollygail]

Just realized I hadn't posted a reply yesterday. Most of my new arrangements already happened. I went from teaching twice a week at my own shul (Sunday mornings and Tuesday afternoon) in person to both on Zoom for the first full year of the pandemic, then Sundays in person while Tuesday remained on Zoom. And that's still the case. Parents seems to like the Tuesday afternoons on Zoom; it's easier for the parents not to have to make extra arrangements to have their kids driven from "regular" school to religious school in the middle of the week, especially if parents are working away from home (my Tuesday class is 4:30 to 5:30). As for my own post-mask wearing days, last Saturday was the first time I went to services at an old familiar congregation and collected a lot of hugs (and I LOVED it!). That doesn't happen anywhere near as much at the local Conservative shul I attend (definitely not during the week, and those are the people I know best if and when I show up there on Shabbat mornings).

I think the closest I ever came to watching "super-hero" movies were the Star Trek and Star Wars ones, and I believe they're not in the "super-hero" genre. I devoured Superman comic books while growing up, and then the Marvel Comics super-heroes when I was in college (Fab Four?, Hulk, etc.) but never got into any of the movies where violence was on top. I sometimes like "caper" films. I'm not at all into violence (although if there's a little "light" violence, I might be okay with it). I do like mysteries and comedies. DH also enjoys these plus he also watches some I don't, often the ones with more violence. Language doesn't bother me at all, but putting down women is not something I'm willing to watch, and neither are the ones with unnecessary violence.

[louise]

I never got into the superhero movies much. I was a Star Trek fan and, at least for the first few, a Star Wars fan as well. Not so much into "fight" movies but then again I haven't been much of a movie goer of late at all.

Moderately better with my food yesterday.

[gazelle18]

I only watch “mom friendly” movies. I don’t like blood, gore, violence, excessive action scenes with cars crashing and buses blowing up. I think super heroes are a bore. When DH and I recently went to see “Oppenheimer “, there were approximately 10 trailers for upcoming movies, and I believe ALL of them featured a lot of violence. It was sad, really!