{"id":551,"date":"2024-04-18T16:52:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T16:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/?p=551"},"modified":"2024-04-18T16:56:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T16:56:00","slug":"the-matrix-as-a-trans-allegory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/2024\/04\/18\/the-matrix-as-a-trans-allegory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Matrix as a Trans Allegory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Through the number of times <em>The Matrix<\/em> has appeared in pop-culture, in various Emory courses, and even in politics, I always found it fascinating that the original story was allegorical to the &#8220;egg-cracking&#8221;, and subsequent transition, of transgender people. Though both sisters were at the time not out, much of the fuel of the film is powered by the emotions of that desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not fan-fiction or anything like that, both of the Wachowski&#8217;s are openly trans, and here is Lilly Wachowski in an interview speaking on the Matrix&#8217;s legacy and it&#8217;s story as a largely trans one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why The Matrix Is a Trans Story According to Lilly Wachowski | Netflix\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/adXm2sDzGkQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many such nods to this allegory in the film, such as Switch&#8217;s character originally being written as both man and woman, or Neo&#8217;s rejection of his &#8220;deadname&#8221;, and more throughout the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think in this, it is fascinating how the Matrix has been co-opted into the mainstream culture, often in the case of conservative or &#8220;red-pilled&#8221; politics. This idea of awakening to the real world, can be interpreted in many ways&#8211; as an awakening to a life as a different gender, or as waking up to the lies of liberals and going off the reddit deep-end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Through the number of times The Matrix has appeared in pop-culture, in various Emory courses, and even in politics, I always found it fascinating that the original story was allegorical to the &#8220;egg-cracking&#8221;, and subsequent transition, of transgender people. Though both sisters were at the time not out, much of the fuel of the film [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6946,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,22],"tags":[98,106],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-searcher","category-week-14","tag-searcher","tag-the-matrix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6946"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/aiandfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}