This week, by popular demand, we’re talking about The Matrix, a film once co-opted by the online right that has in recent years seen a kind of reclamation as an explicitly queer, trans text. Carolyn kicks things off by telling us about a 20th anniversary screening of the landmark film that she attended last year which illuminated some aspects of the film that contribute to its reading as a queer work. From there, we talk about the film’s systemic perspective, and reveal who among us would take the blue pill. We talk about the challenge of doing the actual work of resisting the cisnormative heteronormative white supremacist patriarchy, and express frustration with some of the film’s more conventional aspects, including the role Trinity is wedged into. Carolyn does her best Agent Smith impression, Ebony raises an important point about what it means if humanity only accepts the simulation if it replicates certain forms of oppression, and we talk about finding joy in the struggle.
PLEASE NOTE that this is our final episode before a brief hiatus. We shall return on October 7th to kick off a new season!
Time Stamps:
3:15 – The Matrix
41:20 – What’s Your FREQ-Out: Ebony on Jessica Krug and the idea of “transracialism,” Carolyn on a few other Keanu Reeves movies, Anita on On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis and the documentary Netizens now on HBO Max.
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