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December 21, 2003
The Elephants in the Room
WARNING: Contains spoilers for movies you couldn't possibly think you could see un-spoiled at this point, but I give notice anyway, because I'm nice like that.
So Jason said in comments a bit ago, in reference to The Matrix Trilogy:
And, I can't say it enough, all the heroes were brown people.I refuse to not feel wonderful about that. Black people, Brown people, Yellow people and some token Whites saved the day.
Rainbow Coalition, motherfuckers!
What we're all going to pretend not to notice is that, while there was a multiculti group either fighting against the system -- the Zion humans, the Oracle, Seraph, the Keymaker -- or trying to escape it -- Sati and her parents -- I seem to remember, viewing the film through my personal, distorted set of ideological blinders, that everyone working to uphold the system, from the Agents to the Architect to the Merovingian and the Twins. . . were white.
An accident of casting, perhaps.
And let's not talk about Switch (who died) and Charra (who died) either, eh? Make folks start wondering why the butches get no love.
Then again, the femmes get even less, because I ain't recalling none.
Want to know more? You could do worse than drop by DykeWrite: Matrix Revolutions.
Posted by Aaron at December 21, 2003 09:30 AM
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Comments
Some of the Merovingian's henchmen are non-white and one of them in Reloaded, IIRC, is non-male, but otherwise, yep. Pretty much. There generally aren't even women involved. White Men upholding the system.
Sounds about right.
Posted by: VASpider at December 21, 2003 11:36 AM
No, butches get no love. Ever.
&, I at least, would argue that Trinity could be read as a sort of femme character. Go ahead & laugh, but remember we're talking about performativity here, so straight girls can be femme, too. & femme, of course, doesn't mean "weak."
Think about how she performs herself inside the matrix.
Ok- I'll shut up now & toddle off to DykeWrite...
Posted by: neogrammarian at December 21, 2003 12:45 PM
Butches get love here, as well you know, sweetie.
I mean, *ahem*, interesting take on Trinity there. Yes. And that actually puts some of the other women characters (from Reloaded and Revolutions) in the femme column, so my previous statement, like the one about no women working for the system -- forgot the Azian sista/henchwoman of the Merovingian -- is totally offbase and ill-informed.
Well, not totally, but I have a reputation to maintain.
Posted by: Aaron at December 21, 2003 09:07 PM
Well, as for the woman [stress on the singular] working for the system, I still think you'd be fair in yelling 'token' at them for it.
Posted by: neogrammarian at December 22, 2003 08:34 AM
Which, really, fits, if you think about it.
Posted by: VASpider at December 22, 2003 12:02 PM