In the first Matrix movie, the two major female roles are Trinity and The Oracle. Now I’m sure there are thousands of possible dissertation topics within this area of gender and Neo. But I’ll ignore those serious discussions of significance for a little playtime here…
Who wouldn’t want to be Trinity? She can hack. She can do kung fu. She can wear tight black leather suits and look good.
Yet life as Trinity isn’t my destiny. I can’t hack. I can’t even hack through the html book I started a few months ago. Last time I checked, my kung fu skills were lame. Not lame as in Carrie Anne Moss’ broken leg. Lame as in non-existent. And last time I looked in my closet, the number of outfits that were black leather, tight-fitting and flattering on me totalled zero.
But I think I’ve got a better shot at being The Oracle. All I’ve got to do is have love beads hanging in my kitchen (just got to get Ted to approve it!), bake lots of cookies and invite young children to bend spoons in my living room. Hmmm…two of the three are happening already….
I like Trinity. She’s sexy, sure. She’s powerful. She’s got brains and a guy. I wouldn’t mind being able to wear black leather like that and get away with it. Or do those kung fu kicks.
But life as The Oracle appeals to me too. I like prophecy. The effect of faith. The idea of destiny mixed with the mystery of free will. That there is plan and purpose for your life. But it also depends on your interpretation, understanding and implementation.
Wouldn’t it be cool to know which man is the one to marry, what you should do with yourself next year or that if you stand at 12th and Elm at 3 pm on Sunday something wonderful will happen?
Providing guidance, helping people find purpose, who they were meant to be and what they were destined to do, appeals to me. Seeing beyond the visible, the here and now. Having discernment to know what to say to whom. Telling others only what they need to know, nothing more or less. I wish for such wisdom and insight!
I’ll never pass for Gloria Foster but I can find an apron or two, and I can hope to be an oracle of sorts in my own way, as wisdom and time allow. I’d like to be able to give out cookies and encouragement in my kitchen. It’s a bit of an ambitious aspiration for thirtysomething, but maybe by sixty or so I’ll have my love beads and prophecy all in place.
But for now I have cookies. Piles of them for tomorrow’s neighborhood spring-cleaning. Too many cookies.
Here, have one.
1 response so far ↓
1 Kris Hasson-Jones // May 16, 2004 at 3:38 pm
Nothing about the madonna/whore dichotomy? I mean really, the only two fully realized women characters are an older woman who gives advice and has zero sex appeal *and* has children living with her, and a young, very thin, very fit sexpot who dresses seductively and falls in love with the hero–I thought we were over this kind of ghettoization of women’s roles.