One theory is that the red pill is a reference to premarin, the most common estrogen prescribed for HRT in the 90s.
I thought it was Docusate Sodium[1] a stool softener, laxative. Getting the matrix bull shit out and whatnot.
Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
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Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#12I don't really get the sense of this from the movie. The movie is straight up Gnosticism in a cyberpunk form, in the sense it appeared in during history. Kind of an offshoot of Christianity. You even get the main villain being the demiurge with Neo as the Gnostic Christ who frees us from the evil God's reign through his death. there's a lot of gnostic concepts, such as the world being an illusion that is only revealed through secret knowledge, and the need to awaken people to reality.
I kind of feel this is more Lily's transition coloring her past. If it were about trans even if the studio were against it, you'd see a lot more body fluidity or the focus would be a lot different.
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not clear about what's ridiculous about Lilly's picture. I think she looks great. You may want to rethink your attitude about trans people.
Amazing how you immediately assume that they're making a comment on whether they're transgender or not. Personally, I thought it was silly wearing that type of top - it looks much too tight for them.
The way their clothes fit on them isn’t really any of our business either
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#14The Wachowski brothers plagiarized the Matrix from Thomas Althouse https://redpillrising.org/ Everything they say about the film is nonsense
That was even less persuasive than I expected when I clicked. I'm not surprised he lost his lawsuit.
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#15Imagine writing and directing a trans allegory in 1999— when the studio thinks a character portrayed as male in the real world and female in the Matrix is crossing the line— and then rapidly:
• having your whole franchise met with critical acclaim and commercial success
• sparking philosophical conversations among people who might've never had them otherwise
• having a bunch of MRAs led covertly by a Republican politician co-opt your shit anonymously on the Internet, misdirecting frustrated people for decades toward misogyny and damaging countless lives*
• building up an enormously anticipated film trilogy and video game franchise with tons of media attention
• inspiring a devoted fan base to look deeper and deeper for different varieties of symbolism throughout the canon
...all the while carrying this underlying message, unbeknownst to almost every trend-surfing professor, every armchair philosopher, every idiot misogynist, every news reporter, film critic and fan. It's flown over so many inflated heads, because it was subtle out of necessity, and we were too blind to see.
Shameless cranial plug: try and maybe fork my Matrix code! https://github.com/Rezmason/matrix
* not blaming the Matrix for this, that's a whole other conversation
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#16No it isn't. Perhaps it was intended to be and perhaps there was an allegorical meaning in earlier drafts, but the films are in fact perfectly straightforward.
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#17Gotta hand it to the Wachowskis, they've really put dedication into the Matrix mythos. 20 years later and long since it's end they're STILL commited to making it stupider.
If you actually watch the video. It's all about a bunch of general themes and tropes featured in most works of fiction that can be easily twisted to whatever the interpreter desires. In this case, it's their after the fact transition.
"It speaks to trans people because transformation in the sci-fi genre is just about imagination and worldbuilding and seemingly impossible things become possible"
"It was sci-fi and fantasy because we're trans"
"Being trans gave us ideas that hadn't been done before on film"
"We incorporated multiple genres because we're trans"
If you think I'm being unfair, that's literally all the context given. The actual explainations of the supposed themes last for like 30 seconds combined and the the rest of the video is completely unrelated word salad. The most concrete evidence of ANY potential transgender themes is switch and it's glossed over in about 5 seconds. WTF?
We've reached "Rugrats is actually Angelica's coma dream" levels of fan theory at this point. Hats off to them.
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#18No it isn't. Perhaps it was intended to be and perhaps there was an allegorical meaning in earlier drafts, but the films are in fact perfectly straightforward.
Why insist on such a shallow reading?
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#19No it isn't. Perhaps it was intended to be and perhaps there was an allegorical meaning in earlier drafts, but the films are in fact perfectly straightforward.
Why insist on such a shallow reading?
Maybe to this person, reading into The Matrix has become a ritual of conformity, and they're needing to break free of it.
OTOH, maybe reading into people's shallowness has become a ritual of conformity, and we need to break free of it.
Re: Lilly Wachowski confirms 'Matrix' series is a transgender allegory
#20Gotta hand it to the Wachowskis, they've really put dedication into the Matrix mythos. 20 years later and long since it's end they're STILL commited to making it stupider. If you actually watch the video. It's all about a bunch of general themes and tropes featured in most works of fiction that can be easily twisted to whatever the interpreter desires. In this case, it's their after the fact transition. "It speaks to…
The movie is about Thomas Anderson, who lives a secret life as Neo by night. He feels there is something deeply wrong with his experience, but he doesn't know why. He endlessly searches the internet, looking for other people with the same feelings.
He is interrogated by agents, who silence him and reject his chosen identity as Neo. He is then freed by a group of (pretty queer dressing) rebels, who offer him the truth in the form of a red pill (oddly enough, Premarin is also a red pill).
Neo is reborn, and undergoes extensive medical treatments. But he still has the port in his neck reminding him of his old life. As time goes on, his residual self image changes. Even still, he has self doubt about his identity.
When he goes back into the matrix, he is consistently deadnamed by the agents. The movie ends with Neo asserting his true identity, killing Agent Smith, and pledging to free the rest of humanity.
Yep, there's nothing there that could possibly be a trans allegory.