Peter Weir's 1998 film, The Truman Show, was on TV while I was recovering from top surgery in January. Unconventional trans narratives were fresh in my mind at the time, and the film spoke to me. While it's clear that this wasn't the intention of the film, I'm happy that I can find new, unintended meaning in media. One of the greatest joys of art is finding your own interpretation, and I'm glad to share mine here.
In this film, Truman's existence is controlled by the creator of the titular television program, Christof. He is unaware that he's living in a television show that's being broadcast across the world. His life is managed and manufactured to create profit, entertain an audience, and maintain a status quo within the fictional town of Seahaven. Even though he appears to be content, there were always hints within his life that something was wrong. A woman named Sylvia once tried to tell him his life was a television program, and was dragged away by another actor, claiming she needed mental help. There's the strange behavior of his wife, who always seems to be staring into the middle distance and advertising products. And later on, he encounters increasingly ridiculous obstacles when trying to travel outside of Seahaven.
Much like someone who is trans, he always has known something has been off, but hasn't been able to put his finger on it. There is a status quo everyone around him is trying to maintain to uphold the patriarchy, capitalism, and cultural hegemony. He is surrounded by people telling him that he must remain the same person, he must not try to change his life, and that he should be happy with who he is. The ruling class, Christof, has a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. He claims to love and care for Truman, but he still makes choices that are ultimately self-serving. Truman knows something is off. It just took him a little while to awaken to it. Even his closest friend, Marlon, who might appear to have good intentions at first, is someone who works to maintain the status quo, doing Truman a disservice in the process.
I don't believe that it's a coincidence that The Matrix came out only a year later. The concept of a ruling class using the media to establish a cultural hegemony, and then present it back to us as a thin façade that convinces us that the world is static and unchangeable seemed to be a popular topic at this time. Reality television was gaining popularity, more progressive ideas were becoming more mainstream, and the media landscape was changing rapidly. Truman and Neo have a lot more in common than I ever realized.
When Truman realizes that his world is false, and that he can choose to be whoever he wants, there's a moment of catharsis in the film that mirrored my own realization that I was trans. The world he leaves behind is familiar, and safe, but the world he's entering is boundless, beautiful, and unknown. The idea of being able to become an authentic person, rather than someone whose life was chosen by someone else (all the way down to their birth gender) is freeing.
Christof: "We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that." - The Truman Show (1998)
When Truman realizes that he does not have to accept the reality of the world he's presented, he becomes a true man. When I recognized that I did not have to accept the gender I was unhappy with, I became a true man too.