Welcome to #TransTuesday! This week brings the THE UNINTENTIONAL (?) TRANS ALLEGORY OF SILO, PART 2! Tillyvison powers to full, it’s time to Silo up! We’re picking up right where we left off in the pilot!
Before we do, be sure you’ve read PART 1, which has context you’ll need going in, and also covers the first part of the first episode. And if you don’t read THAT, this one isn’t gonna make much sense to you.
Allison and Holston meet Gloria, and watch their reactions to her at first. She’s this person everyone suspects is different, is weird, is trans, and they don’t want to associate with her. Then people might think THEY’RE trans, and heaven forbid.
Even though, in the allegory, Allison and Holston are both trans people, in this flashback neither of them has realized it yet. And so they’re reacting to a trans person the way society has taught them to.
As I mentioned before, Gloria is a trans person who never transitioned, but everyone suspects is trans. If we follow the surface story, it would be because the Silo/society didn’t give her “permission” to, but in so many places society NEVER gives trans people that permission.
But it could also be that she never transitioned out of fear. She knows the truth about how the silo was preventing bodily autonomy in those it found “undesirable,” and who she shares that information with could come back to hurt her.
Which is just like if she came out publicly as trans, she’d be cast out of society (sent out to clean), so she keeps her truth hidden… but only to a degree. People still seem to know, or suspect.
And note she wants to help them with their bodily autonomy issue. She wants to help others, who are like her, achieve the thing she never got for herself. Unfortunately it leads her to a really dark place later on in the season.
Gloria: “If you have an open mind, come see me.” Holston: “She goes right to the edge of promising people a baby if they do what she says, and it’s cruel.” How dare Gloria say she can help, when nobody can help? We’re not ALLOWED to do what we want with our bodies.
When the doctor “removes” Allison’s mandatory birth control, he says “…takes a few weeks for the hormones to reset.” If you don’t see how this is akin to him telling her about hormone replacement therapy, and pretending he gave it to her, I mean… c’mon.
We then learn Allison’s been trying to educate people on how to recover deleted files. Which seems innocent enough, until you later realize that the Silo has purged all information about the past.
And I’d like you to think for a moment about a trans person you learned about in school. Or did that… not happen? Were you not taught about our contributions to society? Were you not even taught about our very existence?
We have been systematically purged from history. This is why so many incredibly ignorant people think being trans is something “new,” despite the fact there’s evidence of trans people going back thousands of years. We’ve existed as long as there have been humans.
See the trans tuesday on TRANS HISTORY 1 for more info on that.
And this is your first indication that digging into the past, to the correct and vital information about our own existence, isn’t allowed in the silo. It’s not just frowned upon, it’s a CRIME. It’s literally the “don’t say gay” bill drilled down to “don’t say trans.”
Holston: “The pact is the only history we have. What if a bunch of rule-breakers decide they wanna see for themselves what it’s like above ground? They somehow manage to open that door, we are done.” This is what society believes, that we’re a danger to all of society.
That by trans people coming out, MORE of us will think it’s okay to come out (true!) and if that happens it will undo all of society (false! It will only undo the lies of gender-assigned-at-birth being all there is… but that’s what keeps those at the top in power.)
Gloria, to Allison: “Have you ever wondered what was on the servers they erased? In the books they burned? If it was even the rebels that did it?” Don’t you want to know the TRUTH? About our history? About YOURSELF?
Also this feels like a good time to remind you that the first book burning the nazis did when they came to power in Germany… was all the data and information collected at the world’s first transgender clinic. WHAT A COINCIDENCE.
This is important so here, have another.
And here’s the link to TRANS HISTORY 1 again, because in there you will learn how even our allies often don’t care about us, because when the Allies liberated the internment camps THEY LEFT THE QUEER PEOPLE IN THEM. “Allies” indeed.
Gloria: “I’ve heard you’re also someone who wonders.” Allison: “Who told you that?” What? Why would you think I’M trans? No no, I’m not like you! Did someone say I was like you? Why would they say that?
That exchange speaks to me of the way it feels when you’ve been denying the truth of your transness for your whole life, and something happens where you’re afraid you’ve given something away… not just to the world, but to yourself, when you’re not ready yet.
Gloria: “Do you really think you’re the kind of person they want having children?” Again this is a little murky and imperfect, but it works for trans people not being the “kind of person” society wants to have bodily autonomy…
But it ALSO works for trans people not being the “kind of person” society wants to be literally having children or, if you will, “making” more trans people (being out and proud and happy, so other trans people think they can do it too).
Allison gets a trouble ticket for George, and nobody wants to help him. Because he’s weird, and strange, and he’s the type who asks questions! Again, a Flamekeeper/trans person (or a suspected one), and nobody wants to even associate with them. Cis people shun us.
Watch that Freedom Day play, where society is literally indoctrinating children into lies and hate. This speaks SO MUCH to the way trans people, especially trans women, are portrayed in media as monsters, or victims, or jokes, and rarely anything else.
See the trans tuesday on TRANS REP IN MEDIA 2022 (in movies and tv) for how trans rep went for me in every single thing I watched last year.
You can also see the trans tuesday on BAD REPRESENTATION for a more in-depth rundown of what only seeing yourself represented in those ways can do to a person.
This is to keep cis kids thinking of trans people as “the other,” and villainous, and bad, and wrong. And it’s to keep trans kids watching too scared to come out and live their truth. It’s all about controlling the population to keep those in power where they are.
Pay attention during Mayor Jahns’ speech about how they blame the rebels, aka trans people, for literally everything bad that has happened to them. It’s alllll our fault for not conforming. There’s no greater threat to the lies than the people whose existence disproves them.
When Allison accesses the hard drive, George goes to the blueprints, literally the information on why their society is the way it is, or why THEY are the way they are. Why does society hate trans people? Why don’t they want us to look? What if WE’RE trans?
Allison refuses to look, and tells George he shouldn’t look either. Society has conditioned her to not seek out this information, even though she has a burning desire to know. But her desire for the truth (about herself, and society) hasn’t overridden the fear yet.
Allison: “They can send you out to clean for this.” In other words, this could out you as trans to society and get you shunned. But note SHE won’t turn George in. She’s already breaking the conditioning and the internalized transphobia society’s implanted in her.
INTERNALIZED TRANSPHOBIA? Oh yeah, there’s a trans tuesday on that, you betcha.
Allison goes back to Gloria, to learn the truth about why she can’t have a baby/why she’s not allowed bodily autonomy. This then leads her back to George, and her desire to see more of their forbidden history.
She’s waking up to her transness, despite the danger it puts her in, despite society telling her it’s wrong. Because that drive, to know and understand ourselves, is far stronger than the fear society instills in us. Eventually it’s going to win out, and we’re going to look for answers.
And it’s then that she and George see the Jane Carmody cleaning file, showing the outside is birds and blue skies and green plants, not the dead world they see on all the screens in the silo. We’ll talk about this more when we get to the very end of our Silo discussion.
But this is what clues her in to everything that society’s been telling her is a lie. It’s ALL BUILT ON LIES. Once you realize assigned gender at birth is a lie, and you come out as trans and live outside the false cisgender binary matrix…
You see just how MUCH of our society is founded on similar lies, all to keep people boxed in and controlled, so those at the top can consolidate their power. See the trans tuesday on THE FALSE DICHOTOMY for more info.
Allison goes into the bathroom and… the mirror isn’t clear. Her REFLECTION ISN’T CLEAR. The lies she’s learned about have changed the way she sees herself, so her reflection does not reflect the truth. See the trans tuesday on PHOTOS AND REFLECTIONS.
If you’ve read Begin Transmission, my Matrix trans allegories book, you’ll know that reflections are a huge thing in that franchise, particularly the first (and fourth) movies. Silo has more to say about reflections later, too.
So, the scene where Allison tells Holston what she learned, it reads SO MUCH like a trans coming out scene. Allison wasn’t sure he was “going to be able to hear what [she] had to say.” As in, again, he would not be LISTENING, only reacting as he’d been taught to.
Which he tries to do, but she cuts him off with “talking is not listening.” Listen to everything else she says here, knowing what we’ve discussed already, and you’ll immediately pick up on how much of a coming out this really is.
Allison: “They want docile, obedient people.” Because when you know the truth, you rock the boat and fight for change, for your right to be yourself, and that is absolutely a threat to a society entirely built on lies.
Allison knows the doctor didn’t actually remove her birth control, but Holston doesn’t believe her. She shows him proof, she just cut it out of her body herself. She TOOK BACK HER BODILY AUTONOMY. She is accepting her transness and choosing to transition.
There’s probably something to the apple on the plate with the bloody knife, relating to Christianity and Adam and Eve, and how defiance of the rules gets you “cast out” but I think that’s better left to folks who know religion better than me.
Allison, to the masses in the cafeteria: “None of this is real. Do you see? They want to keep you in here, so they’re lying to you.” There’s something I say a lot in my examination of the Matrix films, I call it SUPERtext. The opposite of subtext. And that’s what we’ve got right here.
Gender assigned at birth ISN’T real. Nobody can TELL you your gender, it’s something only you can discover for yourself. But cisgender people find they agree with what they’re told, so they never realize it’s a lie. And that’s what keeps you “in here” oppressing trans people.
Allison: “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Please. Just know there’s no other way. I’m sorry honey. I want to go out.” Everyone is horrified. Society, so many cis people, see transition as a death, and not a rebirth and process that fixes a legit medical condition.
Holston: “If you can boil the Pact down to one rule, it’s to not say you want to go outside or you will fucking go outside.” It’s the cardinal law of this society, and of OUR society. If you say you’re not cis, EVERYTHING in society flips and you are now on the outside. Forever.
Mayor Jahns: “Did anyone else play a part in this, steer her in this direction?” Nobody can make you trans, right? But again, seeing other trans people who’ve done it CAN make you feel like YOU can do it as well… but only if you’re trans, too.
Holston: “Allison feels things strongly. I think not being able to have a baby, it was just too much.” Yeah, being told you CAN’T do what you want with your own body, especially when it’s medically necessary, is very very too much to abide.
Right before Allison goes out, she tells Holston: “If I could wind back the clock and not know what I know, I would. In a heartbeat.” It’d be so much easier to not know our truth and keep living a lie… but it wouldn’t be living, would it?
Allison: “But what I found out, what they told us isn’t true.“ Holston: “So?” He thinks if she found this out she should have told all the authorities and not “said the words that get you sent out there to die.” He doesn’t understand why the truth of her existence is more important to her.
She tells him how the screens are a lie, and aren’t showing reality. Holston: “I know what I’m seeing” Allison: “Not if it’s just what the computer wants you to see.”
So when people get sent out to clean, they’re given a little piece of wool they can use to clean the camera sensor. And Allison asks, “Why do people clean?” Holston: “To get the dust and grime off the sensors. So we can see.”
Allison: “No. Why do they go through with it? Most people swear they’re not going to do it. When you arrested Brent he said you’d have to put a bullet through his head and throw him down the stairs because he wasn’t going to clean. And then what did he do?” Holston: “He cleaned.”
Allison: “I think people clean because they hope somehow that they can show people the truth that [the outside] is a lie. When I get out there, if that’s what it’s really like, I won’t clean. I’ll wave goodbye because I will have made the biggest mistake of my life.
But if I’m right, and it’s green and lush and beautiful, I’ll pull out my wool and I’ll start to clean. And you’ll know. And then I’ll walk over the hill and find out what’s going on. And then I’ll come back for you.”
We then see her being wrapped in her suit with, what we know after seeing the entire season, is the faulty heat tape. We’ll talk about that more at the end, but it’s here now, right from the beginning.
Mayor Jahns: “You have been charged with violating the cardinal law of our society. Any spoken request to leave the silo is granted, but it is irrevocable. Once uttered, it is determinative.” There’s no coming back, you’re out and we don’t want you.
And when they say “you are outside the law” they’re admitting you’re dead to them. Their law is all they care about, never mind if the laws are wrong. There’s a big difference between something that’s “unlawful” and something that’s “unjust.”
Everyone gathers to watch her go out. Allison rises up the steps out into the world. And then she cleans. Everyone cheers. She goes to walk over the hill… but then slows, staggers. She falls, and dies.
Two years later, Holston gets a file on George. He’s dead, he went over the rail and fell. They don’t know if it was an accident or suicide. Holston went to investigate, and that’s when he met Juliette.
Look at that first shot of her, inside the generator. It’s physical, it’s visceral, there’s muscle and grime and that is not what society has told us is how a woman “should” be. You learn from shot one that Juliette doesn’t conform to gender norms.
Also note that a lot of people call her “Jules,” which can certainly be short for Juliette, but is ALSO the masculine form of the same name. Everything about her reads as trans, or at the very least gender-nonconforming. And Holston’s time with her is what changed him.
Marnes: “What happened to you? For two years you were dead inside, then you met Juliette Nichols.” Holston: “I finally started listening is all.” To her? Or to himself? Because in those two years he overcame his fears about Allison, and about his OWN truth.
Holston: “…either way I’m done. I’ve got to know the truth.” He’s realized he’s trans, too, and is going to follow Allison on the path to self-actualization, even though it means society will shun him.
Next time we’re finally going beyond the first episode, and would you believe… it gets even deeper? Of course you would, or else there wouldn’t be anything else to write about. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
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