The Matrix As Transgender Metaphor

The Matrix, a film released in 1999, follow Neo, a hacker, as he finds out that the world isn’t what he thought it was. Rather, the world he knows is a computer simulation, and the humans are being monitored by “The Architect” and policed by governmental agents. He is contacted by Trinity, a woman who is able to do seemingly impossible things, and Morpheus, the ringleader of a group of individuals who know about the Matrix, as this simulation is known, and they tell Neo that he is their chosen one, the one who can fight the agents and free humanity at last.

Since the release of The Matrix, its director-writer siblings, the Wachowski sisters, have come out as trans women. Because of this, many trans* people have embraced and explained how The Matrix can be seen as a transgender coming-out story. Most notably, Dr. Eleanor Lockhart — better known in online communities as Bootleg Girl — published a paper called “Bootlegging the Matrix,” which is often quoted by others when viewing The Matrix through this lens. This may seem like a strange way to view this story, but Neo’s story is about becoming who you really are, when you are faced with adversity, both society and his own perception of how things are or should be, and being seen as an “Anomaly.” His path can be read as a typical trans coming-out/coming-to-terms story, as it is, at its core, about self-acceptance, self-actualization, and understanding the power of being an outlier.

The Matrix, like many stories, uses the idea of a Chosen One, someone born with something that makes them different than everyone else, and often prophesied as someone who will bring enlightenment or freedom to a group of people. Think Harry Potter, Jonas from The Giver, Anakin Skywalker, many Everyman-type characters, and even Jesus. In The Matrix, Neo is our Chosen One. He is destined to walk the “Path of [the] One,” a journey both of self-discovery and self-acceptance. Neo has to discover what the Matrix is, and what it means for him, as well as accept that he is capable of being The One, just as many trans people have to recognize that they are trans, and accept that that is ok.

In an early scene, Agent Smith, an earpiece-wearing man-in-black, interrogates Neo about his double life. He places emphasis on how Thomas A. Anderson, Neo’s identity in the real world, works for a “respectable company” and is kind, helping his landlady “carry out her garbage,” while Neo is “guilty of virtually every computer crime [there is] a law for.” Agent Smith states that “one of these lives has a future,” clearly referring Neo’s life offline as Thomas Anderson.

For trans people, and anyone else who doesn’t conform to their assigned gender, the “normal” ideal of binary gender is oppressive. In the essay “Transgender Themes in the Matrix,” Chelsea L. Shephard writes, “To gender, as to the matrix, you are only one thing or another.” Just as our society often misgenders trans people thus oppressing their true nature, Agent Smith refuses to accept Neo’s place outside of the Matrix, as Neo. Smith and the other agents think of Neo only as a glitch, and refer to him as the Anomaly.

Shepard’s point about the artificiality of gender — that gender, despite reproductive expectations, has very little to do with one’s capabilities — is explicitly echoed in the movie. The first time Trinity and Neo meets, he tells her he thought she would be a man. Trinity, without missing a beat, replies “Most guys do.”

There is nothing about Trinity’s hacking — the only thing Neo knows her for — that would indicate gender. In the world outside the film, this impulse to assign gender to gender-neutral accomplishment may seem familiar: when people hear about an accomplishment without knowing who achieved it, they often feel compelled to assign a gender to it. More often than not, especially in tech circles, the gender that is assumed is male. Trinity, in her design and story, can also be read as the idealistic “end” of Neo’s journey. She’s a hacker, she’s free of the Matrix, and whether intentionally or not, she looks like a female version of Neo.

In “The Matrix as a Transgender Coming Out Story”, Marcy Cook talks about the role the rest of the characters play in Neo’s journey. “Morpheus has the role of the transgender elder, Cypher is the chaser — hate and shame-filled, he acts violently — and Agent Smith and Neo are flip coins of one another.” Morpheus, through this lens, becomes the most important character after Neo, as most trans people don’t start their transition without some sort of “guide.” Like the knowledge that they’re living in the Matrix, the idea of transgenderism isn’t as widespread as something this important, and real, should be. Neo doesn’t have any idea that this is why he feels so out of place until he’s introduced to Morpheus, who offers to “free [his] mind.” Though, as Morpheus says, “I can only show you the door. You’re the one who has to walk through it.” The idea of self-acceptance and moving towards willful transformation is thus planted, and Neo has to decide whether or not he’s going to let it grow. This relates to the philosophy of writer and philosopher Daniel Dennett who believes that each of us has control of understanding our own “self.” He writes, “Each normal individual of this species [humans] makes a self. Out of its brain it spins a web of words and deeds and, like the other creatures, it doesn’t have to know what it’s doing; it just does it.” To expand upon this, humans start out “programmed” to be an individual, but often, our society, and our place in it, can make that individuality feel wrong, or muted. Morpheus, then, is equipping Neo with the tools he needs to establish his “self,” but still leaves the process open enough that Neo gets to “spin” his own story.

In the paper “On Why The Matrix and Its Meaning Matter to Transgender Politics Today,” Dr. Eleanor A. Lockhart includes a list of “things typical of the trans experience” including the fact that “the fight continues after that dramatic moment when you assert your identity.” She cites the moment in the film when the character declares that Neo is, in fact, his name, and watches Agent Smith, or, in this case, his “deadname” get hit by the El.

In the very next scene, Neo has to deal with agents who persist in calling him Mr. Anderson. This experience is similar to that of trans people whose coming-out must be repeated over and over, often for the rest of their lives. Neo can’t simply declare himself Neo, he has to follow through, and continue to introduce himself, especially as long as Mr. Anderson is still a memory, or, more officially, what’s on paper. In her list of “things typical of the trans experience,” Dr. Lockhart includes “the bureaucratic frustration of a system that can take years to make the ‘on-paper’ you reflect the real you” in this section of the paper. Trans people often struggle with this frustration for years, having to repeatedly come out to new classmates and teachers, constantly wrestling with the fact that the person they live their lives as, the person they are known as, technically doesn’t exist in the eyes of our government.

Watching The Matrix through this lens raises an interesting, and potentially controversial question: Can a story about a cis person actually be a trans narrative? The answer, at least to me, is simple. Yes it can, but one has to lean heavily on metaphor. Neo isn’t a transgender person, he starts and ends his journey as a man, but he still fundamentally crosses the boundary between who he is perceived as being and who he actually is. Over the course of the movie, he embraces the “self” he identifies with as who he is meant to be. He embraces Neo, and lets Thomas Anderson go. Neo becomes more comfortable, more powerful, more assured of himself by the end of the movie.

The final speech of the movie is a call to arms, a phone call from Neo to all. He is reaching out to a world of others who are afraid to make the same change he did, mirroring Morpheus showing him the door, saying, “I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.” He offers a world where everything is possible. So pick up the phone, and begin your journey to your “self.”