Thread by @TillyBridges

Welcome to #TransTuesday! Now that you’ve got the needed context, we’re going to dive into the movie itself and show you what PJ Torokvei had to say about being trans in: THE INTENTIONAL TRANS ALLEGORY OF REAL GENIUS, part 2!

If you missed that needed context, you MUST first read part 1. You HAVE to understand all of that to truly understand what’s going on in the actual allegory that we’re about to discuss.

https://twitter.com/TillyBridges/status/1597663987642302464

I’ve tried to grab timestamps when I could, as close to the moment I’m talking about. This isn’t as dense as the Matrix, due to PJ Torokvei’s trans voice only being one among many cis voices, but you’ll see it shine through. Let’s go!

03:59 - After the opening movie-within-the-movie about the Crossbow orbital laser, a dude in this room full of powerful cis men asks what another thinks of it. The reply: “I think there weren’t enough girls in it.” This isn’t intended in terms of equality, but sexualization.

That isn’t explicitly trans, but knowing PJ was a trans woman writer that everyone thought was a cis man writer, how many times do you think she heard that exact reply while writing for movies and television in the 1980s and ‘90s?

04: 29 - Referring to the Crossbow orbital laser (meant for assassinations) one of the dudes says: “So it’s both immoral and unethical?” And then they all laugh, ha ha, so funny. Much like THE MATRIX, this is showing you what the cis white men in power think about the rest of us.

They do not care if something is wrong so long as it upholds their status and the social pecking order with them at the top.

05:10 - There is but one cis Black man in the room, and HE is the one who objects and opts out of the idea of giving these men the power to eliminate anyone they want. As with the Agents and every other person of power in THE MATRX, cis white men are the source of the problem.

05:35 - After the lone Black man nopes out, one of the white men says he: “...used to be a good man. Afraid we’re going to have to eliminate George.”

They allowed him into their circle when they thought he upheld their beliefs in their own superiority, but as soon as he told them what they were doing was wrong, he had to go. One of the old dudes immediately leaves, as if to imply George was going to be killed right then.

This speaks to the fear of marginalized people standing up to those in power, especially the fear of coming out (doubly so in the 1980s) and what’ll happen if you do. Because coming out as trans is a direct threat to the lies cis white men established to keep themselves in power.

06:10 - Hathaway’s intro. He’s asked for autographs which shows you he’s well liked by the general population, even though he immediately demonstrates what an asshole he is. Bigotry was somewhat celebrated in the past, even more than it is now, hard as that is to think about.

Hathaway is sort of our stand-in for transphobic society. Not as directly as Smith was in THE MATRIX, but here he’s definitely the representation of everything wrong with the world.

06:29 - We get Mitch’s intro, and you see right away his parents don’t understand him. It’s literally like he speaks a different language. The movie is kind of about Mitch’s acceptance of himself and/or his own transness.

It’s not as explicit or as strong and clean as Neo’s journey in the first MATRIX movie, but again that’s because here there is only one trans voice among many cis voices. But that’s basically the journey he’s on (allegorically).

08:19 - Mitch: “They’re really all right, it’s just sometimes they have no idea what I’m talking about.” Is there a clearer description of family and friends who you love, but who just cannot understand who you are?

Remember even in the letter written by Stan Brooks after PJ’s death, he talked about not really understanding who PJ was or what it meant to be trans, and continually deadnamed and misgendered her out of ignorance. Mr. Brooks, at least, continued to love PJ as a friend.

08:28 - Mitch doesn’t have many friends, and thinks he intimidates other kids. He’s an outcast, he feels like he doesn’t fit in and nobody likes him. This is life for a lot of trans people, pretending to be cis and being very bad at it while our dysphoria keeps us isolated.

If you missed the Dysphoria thread that kicked off Trans Tuesdays, here you go:

https://twitter.com/TillyBridges/status/1283104571649191936

08:50 - Hathaway thinks he and Mitch are alike, and is honoring Mitch by getting him accepted to Pacific Tech at such a young age. He wants Mitch on his own team, to be cis like him. Society sees the outcast and wants to mold him into the person it wants him to be.

Mitch thinks this is what he wants, because he’s been told by society that’s who he should be. “You’re a cis guy, this is what cis guys do!” And so he goes along because that must be true. What else could there be? All of gendered society isn’t built on LIES, right? (it is)

09:00 - Mitch is going to be working with Chris Knight, a legend. Mitch already knows of and is kind of awed by Chris. Chris is an out trans person (or maybe a trans person who knows about and has accepted their transness) and Mitch is in awe of that.

Note that “Chris” derives from Christ/Christian, and “Knight” is self-explanatory. But did you know “Mitch” derives from “Mitchell” which derives from “Michael”... one of God’s archangels? “Michael” even means “like God” (sort of).

Do you see what this is telling you? Chris is a warrior for what he believes in (very broadly, being trans). And Mitch is LIKE Chris, and important in the fight for trans rights. See what I mean by this being intentional? You don’t accidentally pick those names.

That they also work in the broader sense of the movie’s surface “rejecting conformity and embracing individuality” theme makes sense, because that broader theme is actually ABOUT the trans theme underneath. There’s lots more to come, you’ll see.

09:05 - Cut to Chris and we immediately see even from his shoes that he does not dress like those around him, or like you’d expect. HE DOES NOT CONFORM. Like a trans person.

09:15 - And just in case the shoes weren’t enough, you get his subversive shirt and his alien bobble headband. He doesn’t care that society thinks he looks ridiculous and not like they want him to, he’s more comfortable BEING HIS TRUE SELF.

09:23 - The cis white dude in the suit pulls open the door for Chris, but Chris pushes in the other door on his own. He doesn’t want the path society has laid out for him, he’s going to make his own way. Cis? No thanks, that’s not who I am.

09:50 - Chris is introduced to Sherry and Mike. Chris immediately undercuts the boasts/success of Mike, the cis white man. Takes him down a peg. Chris is charming, disarming, witty. Sherry, a woman, finds that entertaining. Almost like cis women are hurt by the false binary too…

Mike has no comments about Chris’ manner of dress… until he learns that Chris knows the flaws in his project and then instantly moves to insulting him. Your deviation from the norm will only be tolerated (by some) if you know your place and don’t threaten their power.

Sherry here is also instantly into Chris. The surface of the movie posits this as her just liking to seduce the smartest minds in the country, but she’s used in a very clever way as part of the allegory later on. Just remember the WOMAN liked the CONFIDENT TRANS PERSON.

10:40 - Cis white dude says Chris is one of the ten finest minds in the country. Chris: “Someday I hope to be two of them.” This could mean he is of two minds aka has a duality? Was raised as cis but is actually trans?

I can’t really parse it, but there could be something there. But also sometimes a joke is just a joke. But there’s more here. This is showing you Chris is a member of A SMALL MINORITY OF PEOPLE, aka trans people.

Remember we’re maybe 2% of the population by our present best estimates. The actual percentage is likely higher due to some trans people not being out (or knowing they’re trans yet), but we’re still not a large percentage of the population.

And Sherry is clearly INTO “the smartest people in the country,” the smallest minority in the population (aka trans people). Does this make her a chaser? YEP. They’ve been around for as long as trans woman have been - forever.

This isn’t saying trans people are smarter than everyone else by default (though we CAN see the cis binary matrix of society better than anyone else), that’s just how the allegory works in this one moment so you understand what Sherry’s about for later.

If you need a reminder, here’s my thread on CHASERS AND THE FETISHIZATION OF TRANS WOMEN.

https://twitter.com/TillyBridges/status/1572286672695595013

The movie doesn’t really have anything to say about chasers, even though it features one. It has a much more important story to tell in the allegory.

What’s important is what it uses Sherry to SAY in terms of the overall allegory, and that has nothing to do with chasers. It’s a ways off yet, but we’ll get there.

11:25 - Mitch meets Gene, who teaches at Pacific Tech. Gene says they’ve been told to expect great things from Mitch.

11:50 - Gene wants to give Mitch advice but seems confused, addled. Gene sees transness in Mitch, like he sees it in himself (this gets confirmed later!). But Gene hasn’t self-accepted and doesn’t know how to help someone self-actualize when he hasn’t been able to help himself.

12:02 - As Mitch walks, someone asks him “where’s the funeral?” I think the movie wants us to think that’s due to the suit he’s wearing, but do you remember my thread on clothes?

If you missed it, read about how, as a trans woman pretending to be a cis man, suits were HELL. They made me feel like DYING because they’re the most heavily male-coded clothing around. I suspect PJ felt that, too.

https://twitter.com/TillyBridges/status/1328789225509064704

12:38 - Mitch gets to his dorm and… his clothes are missing. We later learn Chris took them and put them away. Chris is already trying to show Mitch that THOSE MEN’S CLOTHES ARE NOT FOR YOU.

12:43 - Chris’ side of the room is messy, chaotic, and we again see that he DOES NOT CONFORM.

12:52 - Hollyfeld enters Mitch’s room, disappears into the closet. Note he’s dressed similarly to Mitch, but has a beard and his hair is longer. He’s Mitch’s future, TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET.

Note that holly is often seen as a symbol of eternal life, and it apparently became associated with Christmas as its sharp leaves were symbolic of Christ’s crown of thorns, the red berries symbolic of Christ’s blood.

Now look, I’m not Christian, but Mitch/Chris/Hollyfeld having names that all relate to Christianity was, again, intentional. They are all of one/the same - but it’s not that they’re Christian, they’re TRANS. Hollyfeld plays a super important part in the allegory. Read on!

13:16 - Mitch: “What kind of a place is this?” This isn’t the world he’s used to, and things don’t work the same. It doesn’t make sense to him. It speaks to starting to wake up to why the world feels wrong when your egg starts cracking and you start figuring out your transness.

13:19 - Chris: “Would you be prepared if gravity reversed itself?” Chris is UPSIDE DOWN and talking about FLIGHT. This is foreshadowing that he’s going to reverse Mitch’s ideas about the world and it will free him of the societal restraints holding him down.

If gravity reversed itself, Chris doesn’t know how he’d keep the change in his pockets until he realizes: nudity means he wouldn’t lose his change. This is saying that the way to not lose the changes you want to keep is to be naked, completely honest with yourself.

13:30 - Note during the conversation Chris continues to not conform (they’re jokes, but they’re all about not conforming to your expectations). He asks Mitch if he’d like to use his “penis stretcher” and Mitch says “No!”

Is that because it’d be dangerous? Or is it because penis size has often been used as a sign of “manliness” and that’s the last thing Mitch wants… to be MORE of a man? I’M JUST SAYIN’.

13:50 - Chris wants to “avoid responsibility,” all the obligations and expectations society saddles you with so you will conform and perform your assigned gender correctly.

13:59 - Chris: “You see, Mitch, I used to be you.” Chris USED to be an egg, a trans person who didn’t know they were trans and hadn’t self-accepted. Are you seeing how so much of this is so very trans when you know what to look for?

14:14 - Chris wanted to reconnect with his old self (aka Mitch), so put his clothes away for him… in the BOTTOM drawer, and he threw the sports jacket away. He’s already pushing Mitch along the path of acceptance and realization of his true self. Those clothes are not for him.

14:35 - Chris’ drone breaks out of the room, shatters a window. Chris: “Would you classify that as a launch problem or a design problem?” Did things go wrong because you were “designed incorrectly,” or because you were sent off into the world incorrectly?

Are the feelings you have about not being a cis man because you were born with the wrong body, or because society used that body to tell you who you had to be without deviation? Note: IT CAN BE BOTH. And either way it shatters societal expectations.

15:29 - Not only is Hathaway working with the cis white men in power to develop their weapon, he’s committing fraud and stealing from the project. He’s unethical in every regard. There is nothing good about the mold society tries to force us into. It’s irredeemable.

17:48 - Mitch is introduced to the group and is Hathaway’s new favorite. Chris didn’t show up because he didn’t feel like it. Everyone in the group is subservient and deferential to Hathaway… except Chris. Which tracks with everything we’ve learned so far.

19:24 - Mitch is already more relaxed and dressing more comfortably, this is the first time we’ve seen him not in a suit. Chris has already inspired Mitch to move along the path to self-acceptance and actualization.

Seeing other trans people out and living their lives, and finding joy, inspires others to do the same.

19:40 - Mitch is in a sweater… and then falls into a pile of ice. He was prepared for what was waiting for him outside without even knowing it, just from one conversation with Chris. But look at Chris now… still not dressed how you’d expect. Prepared! But not conforming.

20:50 - Mitch meets Jordan. Notice she also doesn’t conform to what you’d “expect” traditionally feminine students in the 1980s to look like. Her name is gender neutral, like Chris. She’s the only real woman in the movie, besides Sherry. Both play important parts for Mitch.

Allllso note that “Jordan” is the river Christ was baptized in. Jordan will be important to Mitch’s self-discovery and acceptance of (and becoming) his true self.

22:28 - Kent, king conformo, calls Mitch and Chris “degenerates,” even while HE was the one found naked and alone with a bowl of Jell-o. So there’s something “off” about Kent, even though he’s the most adamant about being who Hathaway and society want him to be. Hmmmm.

22:31 - Even when sleeping, Mitch conforms to the “dress code” of men, pants and a shirt with a collar in man-coded colors. He then sees Hollyfeld again, and checks the closet more thoroughly but still can’t find him.

24:19 - Look how Chris sleeps. Almost naked, comfortable with himself, and still not conforming to what society expects. In EVERY aspect of his life he is true to himself.

24:36 - Jordan finds Mitch in the men’s bathroom. Even here, in a place only for men, he cannot escape the woman that captivates him. What do you think that means? She MADE HIM A SWEATER, the thing he was wearing when they met. She is helping him be prepared.

Jordan’s going to be a step along Mitch’s journey. She’s not his self-actualized persona, like Trinity was for Neo in THE MATRIX, but she and Sherry are used to make a broader point about things at the end. Hang tight, we’ll get there.

25:08 - Jordan tells him if he ever needs to talk she’s only a couple doors down and never sleeps, so she’s always there for him if he needs her. This is, sort of, waking up to the real you inside and knowing the real you is always in there. ALWAYS. Whenever you need her.

Next time we’re going to talk about Chris’s dream (oh, THE DREAM!), lyrics, and nonconformity! Don't miss it, because you need that part to really understand the amazing message at the end of it all.

Tilly Bridges, end transmission.