Yup, all the time. To give an example, yesterday I watched DC League of Super Pets with my child and cried quite a lot at one bit (if you’ve seen it, you probably know which bit). It’s a solid movie overall too - great voice cast.

It’s not unusual for me to cry when reading or listening to the news.

I’m 41 too, but a woman.

I rarely cried when watching shows of movies for most of my life… then I started transitioning and taking estrogen. Now I cry so easily it feels like a joke. But I love it.

I don’t usually cry during movies. But sometimes later when I’m thinking about it I let out a tear or two. Also I cried during a voyager documentary

Me, alot actually. If your movie made me feel nothing it probably sucked. If it actually managed to make me cry it’s probably a pretty good movie.

I tear up at most movies. It’s not a sad movie, but Everything Everywhere All at Once holds the current record for most cries.

Generally if a movie doesn’t make me tear up at least once that’s a bad sign. At the same time I don’t gravitate towards tearjerkers, they can feel emotionally manipulative and heavy handed.

I almost never cry for TV shows or books.

if i get triggered i will have a full body cry that lasts an hour and ill just be sitting there in the seat after the lights come on soaked in tears unable to move it’s really embarrassing thanks pixar you fucking asshole

Anyone here watch K Dramas? Crash Landing on You emotionally broke me. I knew they couldn’t keep portraying North Korea as good, but they didn’t have to do all that…

The older I get, the more I don’t give a fuck and just let go. Interstellar - when Cooper is watching messages from his son… Gets me every damn time.

Growing up, I’d occasionally tear up over a sad movie.

Now that I’m older, I seek out movies that tend to be depressing and tragic. Watching them alone let’s me express a level of empathy or grief that is almost therapeutic. Most mainstream movies that are deemed sad may still only get me to slightly tear up like the past. But I’ve encountered enough indy or slightly lesser know films that fly under the radar and they make me ugly cry.

Being in a vulnerable mindset kind of helps because there are moments where I could probably fight it mentally and hold back my reaction. But if I allow myself to let go, then it’s full on sobbing.

Recent movies that had that effect on me are Drawing Closer, and How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.

It’s not always empathy, somethings its a personal element where I relate to someone on screen and I use them as a conduit to express the emotions I might normally suppress or stoicly ignore.

works of fiction never made me cry in my previous gender, but ever since i started estrogen it’s been neat going back and rewatching my faves and seeing how much harder they hit emotionally now

Yes it is normal, that scene in the animated movie up gets me. John Q too.

Very rarely.

The only movie that legit made me cry was Seven Pounds with Will Smith. I only saw it once, and I tried real goddamn hard to suppress the tears, but a few leaked out. Luckily, none of the people I watched it with noticed, so my masculinity remained in-tact.

I’m asking as I’m trying to understand empathy and whether it’s normal to get so invested in fake characters,

Fuck yeah it is. It’s a beautiful thing to be so moved by something that it brings you to tears (especially art). It’s what makes us human: we’re not just mindless beasts trying to eat and fuck, we’re experiencing life to its fullest.

Yeah.

Occasionally I’ll come across scenes in an anime that are so out of place but hurt.

Hey fellow 41 year old dude, I also cry at this stuff. It seems especially pronounced when rewatching nostalgic productions with well written characters and conflict (I will not apologize for crying all the time during Avatar the last Airbender, as an adult man). No, I do not know what this means in regard to healthy emotional processing, it just is what it is. Mind you I also get unjustifiably angry or emotional in other contexts when I feel connected to the fate of a character and they experience injustice. So this might be a general marker for some level of empathy or maybe just emotional mimicry. Thanks for posting, I think this is something people should be okay talking about more.

Edit: I wanted to add this also occurs in other mediums, like video games. Cyberpunk 2077 was like a revolution in awareness for me, but largely because I experience DID to a degree in my life, and it really flipped the table of my understanding of myself seeing what I experience through the eyes of others.