That’s because The Matrix(the movie) is actually a meta-commentary on being trans, the confusing at best sci-fi is just the veil over the actual meaning.
The matrix(the virtual world) represents cisgender. For most inhabitants, everything is totally fine and nothing is amiss, because they are cis.
The ones that notice something is “off” about the Matrix represent trans people. Taking the red pill is the equivalent of leaving the closet. They end up in a world that mostly hates them and want to control/destroy them(the machines represent bigots) and their safety is much lower than before, but they do it anyways because while it was easier to live the lie, they were never truly happy living it. Living in the real world doesn’t guarantee them happiness, far from it, but it at least gives them a chance for it which they never had in the Matrix.
I don’t know if you can draw those exact parallels, and I think it’s trivializing the plot a bit to just “ignore all that sci-fi stuff,” but it has been confirmed by the Lily that it was at least partially on her mind when writing the Matrix:
She [Lily] added that she didn’t know how present her transness was in her mind as they were writing the movie, but that much of the desire for transformation in the films stemmed from her closeted point of view at the time. [1]
There’s a lot to unpack in the above comment, and claiming that being CIS removes all the problems of the world is more than mildly naive as well, but there’s for sure a lot of lgbtq+ messaging in the Matrix, and it doesn’t take a great leap to see it either.
That’s a good explanation. I’d heard it was some kind of trans allegory before but I didn’t see it and never had it explained before, or at least not well.
That’s because The Matrix(the movie) is actually a meta-commentary on being trans, the confusing at best sci-fi is just the veil over the actual meaning.
The matrix(the virtual world) represents cisgender. For most inhabitants, everything is totally fine and nothing is amiss, because they are cis.
The ones that notice something is “off” about the Matrix represent trans people. Taking the red pill is the equivalent of leaving the closet. They end up in a world that mostly hates them and want to control/destroy them(the machines represent bigots) and their safety is much lower than before, but they do it anyways because while it was easier to live the lie, they were never truly happy living it. Living in the real world doesn’t guarantee them happiness, far from it, but it at least gives them a chance for it which they never had in the Matrix.
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I don’t know if you can draw those exact parallels, and I think it’s trivializing the plot a bit to just “ignore all that sci-fi stuff,” but it has been confirmed by the Lily that it was at least partially on her mind when writing the Matrix:
There’s a lot to unpack in the above comment, and claiming that being CIS removes all the problems of the world is more than mildly naive as well, but there’s for sure a lot of lgbtq+ messaging in the Matrix, and it doesn’t take a great leap to see it either.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2021/12/22/1066554369/the-matrix-original-trans-fans-resurrections
That’s a good explanation. I’d heard it was some kind of trans allegory before but I didn’t see it and never had it explained before, or at least not well.