Ben

I'm sure for many of you this won't be news but it was for me and I thought it was interesting so I'm sharing!

"In the film The Matrix, Switch was originally meant to change genders upon entering the Matrix, which coined their name "Switch". In the real world, Switch would be male, and in the Matrix, Switch would be female - a very clever and critical point of the 'residual self-image' idea. When actress Belinda McClory auditioned for the role, she was going for only half the role - Switch's Matrix form.

Warner Brothers made the decision to cut this and give Switch one form for both environments.

Switch's presentation is deliberately androgynous to pay homage to their original concept."

Feb 22 at 4:14pmWeb
Show threadthe buff who fell to earthFeb 22
@TheBreadmonkey You might be interested in reading the book "Begin Transmission: The Trans Allegories of The Matrix" by Tilly Bridges! (Tilly's on Fedi, you can even get a copy directly from her. 🤓 )
Show threadGoodNewsGreyShoes🔞(on hiatus)Feb 22

@buffyleigh @TheBreadmonkey Aw yea!🤩 It's so cool to see all the trans allegories the Wachowski sisters built into the Matrix, like the ambiguously-gendered ghosts in 'Reloaded' (whom I'd heard were self-inserts of the sisters? Tho I can't remember where I heard that...🤔).

Really makes you rethink some of the conspicuous mysteries in "V for Vendetta" (which the sisters also produced & wrote the script for, adapted from the graphic novel)👀🌹🩷🤍🩵🔪

Show threadCyFeb 22
Yeah I heard the whole "MY NAME IS NEO!!1!" thing was supposedly inspired from one of the producers having a transgender crisis on a subway or something.
Show threadA. TangFeb 22
@TheBreadmonkey I was unaware until a couple years ago that The Matrix is chok-full of these types of references! Others will probably mention it as well but Tilly Bridges (who’s on Masto) wrote a super detailed and interesting book called “Begin Transmission (The Trans Allegories of The Matrix)”. It’s a DEEP dive and I really enjoyed it.
Show threadJargogglesFeb 22

@TheBreadmonkey
That's really cool! Unsurprisingly shitty of Warner Brothers, of course.

But yeah, I think most people who are decently media literature were like, "oh, yeah, that tracks," when the Wachowski Sisters came out as trans. Like you said, there's so much stuff in there that makes a ton of sense in that context.

Show threadFace ThumbFeb 24
@TheBreadmonkey Translation: Warner Brothers execs freaked out and cut the trans allegory.