Thread by @MissDiedra

🧵on Marc Spector's Jewishness in the #MoonKnight show

there will be spoilers.

cw: family trauma, physically/emotionally abusive parent

1. This is the tv show not the comic books. I don't care what the books said; this is a literal multiverse and there can and should be differences between 2 mediums (visual vs visual+text).

1a. Some ppl don't like which changes are made. Cool, go make a thread about it.

2. I'm not all Jews. I don't speak for all Judaism.

3. I'm Jewish and Latino. It's relevant.

So one of the common refrains I've seen since MK started has been, "WHEN WILL WE SEE MARC BE JEWISH, HE'S A JEW, WHERE'S THE JUDAISM"

Well, episode 5 told you where it's been. Answer: THERE THE WHOLE TIME.

We Jews are more than our outward displays of Jewishness. We don't have to go around wearing ritual items like tallitot or tzitzit to be Jewish. We don't have to wear kippot in public or a tichel.

We don't have to randomly drop Yiddish, Ladino, or Hebrew in a conversation.

We're Jewish whether other people notice or not, whether we display it with clothing/jewelry or not.

And there's historic reasons we don't always feel safe being Visibly Jewish™ in public! (today is Yom HaShoah, do the math)

Marc is Jewish whether or not he wears a kippah, ever steps foot in a synagogue, or does any Jewish rituals. It's who he is despite outward visibility.

WHY he wasn't Visibly Jewish™ til ep5 is simple: family trauma. [here come the spoilers]

Marc's mother clearly favored his younger brother Randall, and blamed his untimely death on Marc. To the point she became verbally and physically abusive.

So we not only have the sibling rivalry psychology, we have shame, guilt, fear, hatred.

Those of us with abusive parents knew exactly what Marc was feeling as a child. We know about walking on eggshells, being treated as something disgusting, being blamed for the parent's bad behavior.

Kids aren't therapists but abusers put that labor on them, on top of the abuse.

Marc's dad was kind of a non-entity in the home. He wasn't a pushover but it's clear that he was unwilling or unable to confront Wendy's abuse and loathing of their child.

Guess who now hates his dad too: MARC.

Because children of abusive parents know too well that we have 2 entities to struggle against: the instigating parent, and the parent we perceive as enabling the abuse.

Marc outright confronted his father about this.

Elias wanted to keep the home together more than he wanted to help his child being hurt by being IN that home. He'll need to work that out on his own; Marc's solution was going no-contact.

ppl who have suffered abuse know what it is to feel like you need to do ALL the work protecting yourself. Marc created Steven. Later, he left the house and didn't interact.

He did both to protect himself from being hurt more.

Back to the Jewishness.

Marc's family is Jewish. Whether or not Elias is a rabbi isn't relevant; they're Jewish to the point of sitting shiva for a relative. There are Jewish elements in Marc's upbringing regardless of "how much" or "how often."

Jews are Jews whether or not they pray, attend synagogue, follow Torah, mourn Jewishly, or even believe in G-d. Don't like that because it's not how [other religion] works? Too bad, that's how we roll.

Because Marc quit interacting with his parents, he didn't interact with the aspects of Jewishness relating to family and the home. In fact, he largely left all the outward and ritual trappings behind.

Why? Because it HURTS.

Marc's whole thing was protecting himself from being hurt more.

If he (for instance) wears a kippah, he thinks of his dad, which hurts because dad didn't stop mom or protect him from mom. Parents are supposed to protect their kids. It hurts, dammit.

We feel obligated to mourn our parents, even when they're abusive. In Judaism, mourning one's parents is such a big deal that it has an entire YEAR of proscribed mourning practices. Not even the spouse or kids get that. (Traditionally.)

Marc would feel at least some obligation to mourn, if not himself, then for his father. Somehow and with a lot of alcohol, he gets himself physically to the house.

Yet even then, Elias doesn't come TO Marc. He beckons Marc to come to HIM.

After all these years, Elias still can't go the distance. Marc lets him know with a simple shake of his head, "No. I can't do this."

And ELIAS LETS HIM GO.

How is Marc *not* feeling like he's lost 2 parents?

He falls down and weeps in the street. He's hurting maybe more than he ever has in his life. The feeble effort he made to get partway back to familial love and comfort just wasn't enough.

That fucking hurts. He's sad, he's angry.

Marc has every right to be angry. His mother treated him like shit, beat him and berated him. And his father didn't protect him.

Marc had every reason to throw his kippah down and punch it. It was a physical representation of all that pain.

and YET.

The most Jewish moment of the entire damn show: Marc in his tears, clutching the kippah to his chest. Weeping, saying "I'm sorry."

Y'all he's not crying over a knit skullcap.

Marc wants to be with his family. Children want the comfort and love of their parents. Yet that very thing which should love and comfort him brings him pain.

Why do you think Steven finally came back at that moment in time - Marc says as much.

So no duh we didn't see Jewish Marc til just now. NO DUH. His relationship to Jewishness is inextricably bound to his relationship with his parents and that freaking HURTS!

Marc is still Jewish. He might never show it outwardly again but he'll be Jewish for life.

This is related to the fact that Oscar Isaac Hernandez Estrada has been cast to play Marc Spector.

Jewish Latinos exist, and we don't have to display either culture outwardly to have both those identities.

So much of what people consider Visibly Latino™ is bound up in Catholic colonialism: ofrendas mixing Indigenous rite with Christianity, wearing crosses or crucifixes, speaking Spanish AT ALL.

Latinos don't have to randomly place Spanish in conversation to be Latino. We don't have to dress in certain clothing or wear certain jewelry. We're Latino regardless of whether people "see" it or not.

All the actors playing Marc's family in the show are Latino (and/or Hispanic; yes that's a different thread for another time). Oscar Isaac Hernandez Estrada is of Guatemalan and Cuban ancestry.

Oscar can plausibly play a Jewish Latino because those exist (hello, I'm one).

But Marc Spector doesn't have to suddenly drop an "Ay dios mío" to be Visibly Latino™ .... if he even IS supposed to be Latino in the show, which????

We were discussing this yesterday in one of @TerryBlas threads. Some Latinos are actually unsure whether Moon Knight is supposed to be a Latino Superhero™ or not.

I think it has to do with how we are portrayed in media.

But that particular aspect can be its own whole thread.

To sum up: Moon Knight is Jewish as hell and it's fine actually to not have shown anything Recognizably Jewish™ til now.

Trauma fucks up how we deal with our identity. Sometimes VERY literally.

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