We’ll file this under “Entertainment,” although to us it’s “U.S. News,” because it’s news to us that fans of “The Matrix” have for years been discussing the film through a trans lens (although we’ve never attended gender studies classes in college, either). In case you’d missed it, the two Wachowski brothers who directed “The Matrix” and its two sequels are now trans women and thus sisters. That has a lot of people, including Netflix, taking another look at “The Matrix” and seeing it filled with trans allegory in everything from being “red-pilled” to Neo being “deadnamed” by the evil Agent Smith, who represents transphobia.
For years, fans of THE MATRIX have discussed the film through a trans lens. If you’ve heard the theory before or just learned about it, here’s a thread breaking down the trans allegory of the film, from trans writers and critics.
Welcome to the desert of the real. (thread) pic.twitter.com/XlgY8hAcNI
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Lilly Wachowski recently looked back on the film and confirmed the long-discussed theory of THE MATRIX as an allegory for gender transition. “THE MATRIX was all about the desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view."https://t.co/JZZsKnviBB
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
So how is THE MATRIX super trans? Writer @andrealongchu sums it up in an excerpt from her book “Females,” for Vulture: “Neo has dysphoria. The Matrix is the gender binary. The agents are transphobia.” https://t.co/uzyxpyfR2I pic.twitter.com/QLhFDZw1z6
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
The “splinter” in Neo’s mind? That, for many trans folks, is a lot like the experience of being socialized as a gender that doesn’t align with their true gender identity.
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Upon “waking up,” Neo begins his transition from one identity — Thomas A. Anderson, a name given to him by the machines — to the one he sculpts for himself — Neo, his chosen name. pic.twitter.com/h0piIz2aLP
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Recommended
Critic @willow_catelyn writes about the significance of Neo rejecting an old name (ie his deadname) for a new one (his chosen name) in her thread about the film’s legacy:https://t.co/HfvyOg54K8
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Interesting, isn’t it, how Agent Smith only refers to Neo as his deadname, Mr. Anderson, with a persistent emphasis on the “mister,” which Eleanor Lockhart, a professor at Rowan University, wrote about back in 2016. https://t.co/aQugibOzbu pic.twitter.com/PYBysiOyqQ
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
And then there’s the whole red pill, blue pill connection.
Not only is the pill literally Neo’s gateway to seeing the world as it is and the systems built to define and control his identity, but it’s also an apt metaphor for hormone therapy. pic.twitter.com/Bipr8p9gcr
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
The rabbit hole goes deeper. As Chu writes, for years trans women have pointed out that in the ’90s, prescription estrogen was quite literally a red pill. pic.twitter.com/9YqMUDaXM9
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
There’s also the character Switch (Belinda McClory), who was originally written as a trans masculine person. As Lilly Wachowski says, her and Lana's initial plan was for Switch to present as a man in the real world and a woman in The Matrix. pic.twitter.com/EBkJnN815N
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Call it a wild coincidence if you will, but it’s worth noting that one of the very first and last things you see on screen in THE MATRIX is the word “trans.” ? pic.twitter.com/W105y6RKtF
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Here’s the real galaxy brain moment: the trans themes of THE MATRIX aren’t only in the plot, but we could also look at the ways the film’s groundbreaking effects offer a visual representation of a trans experience.
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
OK, now you’re losing us.
Scholar @CaelKeegan, in his book on the Wachowskis “Sensing Transgender,” talks about how THE MATRIX’s visual aesthetics "teach audiences what it might feel like to live in more than one body." https://t.co/AmDD2x1EBv
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Look at bullet time: a technique to split time. Or as Keegan puts it, bullet time “gives the sensation of two temporalities at once… an effect resonant with the experience of gender transition and its multiple embodiments across time.” pic.twitter.com/VjuAYWuLwP
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
While the Wachowski sisters weren’t publicly out as trans while making the films, in the doc DISCLOUSRE Lilly speaks about the “burbling undercurrent of rage that I felt not being able to be who I was” while making THE MATRIX.
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
And this brings us to the concept of an egg. In the trans community, an “egg” is word for a trans person who hasn’t realized they’re trans yet. As Vox critic @emilyvdw writes, THE MATRIX “is maybe the eggiest movie ever made.” https://t.co/GBwecxn5pe pic.twitter.com/6uVTsR9Qqg
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Some have rushed to call Lilly's recent acknowledgment of the trans themes in THE MATRIX “revisionist” or “retconning.” And to that I say, who are you to tell not only a creator, but also a trans person, what was or wasn’t present in their minds while making their own film?
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
While the Wachowski sisters coming out post-MATRIX may have prompted fans to revisit their filmography through a trans lens, they were always trans women and THE MATRIX is and always will be a film by two trans filmmakers.
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
In the final scene of THE MATRIX the camera zooms towards the words “System Failure” in code. Neo says, “You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change” as the camera pushes through the letters “M” and “F,” quite literally creating a space in between, and beyond, the gender binary. pic.twitter.com/djH5uJUw2T
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
Lilly and Lana Wachowski gave us one of the most influential, enduring, and celebrated films of all time. Through THE MATRIX, they gave trans people the possibility of a cinematic world without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible.
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 6, 2020
So now that it’s a “super trans” movie it’s one of the most influential, enduring, and celebrated films of all time.
There’s been a ton of Matrix allegory theories proposed through the years, including ones that would conflict with this trans narrative. This one is just as valid as others, and makes the trilogy even more layered, but I don’t think it turns Matrix into just a trans allegory.
— Bryan Nosanchuk (@BNosanchuk) August 8, 2020
You are right, ive seen the film through a certain lens since for the last 20 years and it’s always been a certain way, got nothing against that community but it’s always made sense that way, not enough evidence for the entire series to be that way
— Red Solo cup (@havenhalf) August 8, 2020
— OllyB (@OllyB1972) August 6, 2020
This is pretentious nonsense.
— Mads (@DumbDumbMM) August 7, 2020
As a fan of The Matrix, I watched it as a classic late 90's sci fi dystopian flick with uber cool slo mo stunts and bullet time, without being saddled with interpretations.
— Saket Chaturvedi (@UpTheIrons83) August 8, 2020
This whole explanation confuses me
— Jeremiah Kun (@jerjerbinks13) August 8, 2020
@SirajAHashmi Please list
— Cheerfully Malcontent (@Chfl_malcontent) August 8, 2020
i like how this is all built upon the presumption that the matrix was an original idea.
— Weird Al Coholic (@MidniteMirth) August 8, 2020
Or it follows Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” like just about every single book and movie has since like forever…
— Stuart Ullman (@ullman_stuart) August 8, 2020
While we're at it this Micky Mouse piece was also a trans allegory, it just took decades to be decided upon. pic.twitter.com/iTuW0cVuoY
— Pedram Aghakhani (@AghakhaniPedram) August 7, 2020
That explains why the films were bad thanks.
— Kieran Egerton (@megakizz) August 8, 2020
The sequels were bad … and as trans allegory, they were even worse.
Interesting.
I always viewed "The Matrix" through a Christian lens. Neo dies and comes back to life via the love of Trinity. Morpheus is a Moses figure leading people to freedom from slavery and a prophet awaiting the coming of the messiah. Neo literally ascends at the end.
— Chris Hagan (@Chris__Hagan) August 8, 2020
Yeah, I'm just not seeing it. I'm all for trans narratives in art, but this feels like two directors who made one really great film 21 years ago and then a lot of enhh films in the time since trying to stay relevant. If you want to read it that way though, go for it.
— Jefferson Baugh (@HenryJBaugh) August 8, 2020
What about all of the guns? “The Matrix” had Neo wielding a ridiculous amount of guns — sounds phallic to us.
Related:
People are very, very angry at @redsteeze for buying a ticket to the women only Wonder Woman screening in Brooklyn https://t.co/UyKu1pzoVN
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 27, 2017
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