I think your experiences with learning this is pretty common. At my current job, people were genuinely shocked by some of my experiences. I think the vast majority of folks are good people like you, that just never bumped into this issue before.
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(Respectfully campy, sci-fi nerdy but LONG response)
Morpheus introduces the concept of āresidual self imageā to explain why Neo looks a little different in the matrix than the real world: when he returns to the matrix, his appearance is how he sees himself, rather than purely based on his physical body. In the original script for the Matrix, Switch was actually supposed to be a trans character who āswitchedā genders going into the matrix because this āresidual self imageā would have been different from the physical self. (Seriously. I guess they were too closeted to follow through on the analogy they so carefully set up.)
But that only explains a return to the matrix. I guess the real question is why, for everyone we see in the films, their physical bodies look so similar to their original Matrix bodies, and the only thing that makes sense is that their programs are designed to mirror their physical development. But it also seems to be the case that body weight and fitness is similar, so eating food & exercising in the matrix must also affect somehow the nutrition and development of their physical bodies. So, arguably, if someone takes hormone replacement therapy in the matrix, hormone effects would also apply to their physical bodies.
When it comes to surgeries in the matrix, we know that physical injuries in the matrix can shock and even kill the physical body, but they donāt seem to be permanently duplicated ā for example, it seems someone could perhaps lose a limb in the matrix without any permanent effect. If thatās the case, then when a trans person is awakened from the matrix and returns, they experience the following bodies:
- Original matrix body affected by hormones and surgeries
- Real world body affected by hormones only
- Residual self-image on return to the matrix (which could be original matrix body or an idealized gender body)
I hope I got enough Matrix canon wrong to spark a passionate flame war.
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I took it as āwhy is the Daily Mail reporting on something that is really none of our businessā?
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Iāll have to give it a read! Thanks!
Yesā¦ change it for future editions?
Same here. One of at least two (that I know of).
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That might work if he didnāt state outright it was a political statement in protest of transgender folks being allowed into the right bathroom. Plus he made a bunch of younger girls uncomfortable on purpose for his political point.
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The way I see it, you can think something is wrong without sucker punching a person for trying to pee in the bathroom. Those kinds of beliefs give an easy out to people prone to violence.
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Interesting! I had a hunch the Wachowskis spent some time thinking on that one.
Another thought I had was that maybe in the mythos of the Matrix, gender dysphoria could be an indication of oneās āin-world avatarā not matching up with their physical body. In which case a trans person might get unplugged and find themselves in the body they always felt they were āmeantā to be.
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Iād argue yes. There are always hints that your particular bias is incorrect. If you spend the effort to suppress those hints rather than investigating and evaluating your bias, then yes, you are in a way choosing to be a horrible person.
Iād also bet that a lot more is learned than biological as far as our biases on gender etcā¦ go.
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Well, maybe the sex change will also give Lilly a change of heart, and they can finally give me credit for my contributions to the first Matrix movie.
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I had heard the stats and stuff, but talking to an actual person who I know and like who has lived the stats, it is very hard to swallow.
One of my first experiences as a listener on a listening hotline was to spend an hour with a person who was looking for a trans support group. He (he was not transitioning or even close, but I hope he is now a she) was one of the loneliest people I ever talked to. I was very young, 23 I think, at the time, and would have never spoken to this person in āreal lifeā and definitely not about their problem. I remember at the end of the hour thinking how stupid it was that people made such a big deal out of something that didnāt affect them, and how terrible it was that this person felt so isolated.
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My city, Charlotte, just passed a law allowing transgender people to choose the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. I wonder if laws granting these rights are outpacing laws that are futilely trying to criminalize such behavior.
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This would be, though you might have to either get rid of urinals or put them in stalls.
This is a good question, Iām not sure to what extent people should be held accountable for their ethics (or their meta-ethics for that matter, i.e. the rules by which we decide what ethical principles to adopt). In practice it seems to me the key component of how much people question their upbringing is intelligence mixed with curiosity - the sooner and easier you notice the inconsistencies and other problems everyone else ignores, the more likely you are to try and find something better. That suggests to me that we need a much greater public effort to teach philosophy, the importance examining received wisdom critically, etc. - something I think few Boingers would oppose.
Also, just spitballing, it feels like the bathroom bill argument has the same structure as the argument for DRM. āX is already illegal, but letās criminalize Y (which is almost entirely uncorrelated with X) and say weāre doing it in the hope that it will decrease X, when really we care about Y for totally unrelated reasons weāre unwilling to publicly defend.ā
When I was a kid thatās what I thought heaven was like.
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Well, presumably waking up in heaven wouldnāt involve finding yourself submerged in slime and riddled with ethernet ports.
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Hey, you donāt know what Iām into. 
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Isaac Asimov had a big problem with shared bathrooms of any stripe. I share his reluctance to shit in anyone elseās vicinity, or to have them shit in mine.
And yes, I solved Zork and learned BASIC on a TRS-80.
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