Rewatching V for Vendetta

Published: 2026-05-14

It has been many years since I saw "V for Vendetta" and it always had this "something something transgender" vibe to me that I couldn't pinpoint well. Well, this was before the Wachowsky sisters came out and of cause, it's a movie written by two trans women.

Because I got reminded about this movie today I gave it a re-watch some years later.

This isn't as much of a review as it is me reflecting on what it means to me, emotionally and spiritually.

First of all, this aged fucking well. As of time of writing, it is *checks notes* 21 years old.

Holy Fuck! I have people in my community that weren't even born when it came out! I feel old.

And I won't summerize the plot. If you haven't seen it, watch it yourself. The movie is not only incredibly more transgender than I remember, it is also deeply jihadist in the true sense of the word.

What makes it so trans (I should say queer, to me it's trans but I'd say I am biassed here) is for one, it evokes exactly that feeling I have about the society I live in, that has genocided - among others - our queer ancestors just a few generations ago and swept it under the rug since. About this state. About power.

But the main characters themselves, V and Evey, really are representing the same person, pre and post transition. Even the males are a hint here. V, the "man" who isn't a man but a mask, driven by revenge. A revenge that culminates in transformation into Evey.

This ticks into my feelings about my own transition. I was driven by anger. Anger about power and oppression. Anger about injustice. About our states killing people at our borders, about the oppression of all "unworthy life". It consumed me while regard for my own life or thriving has been washed away.

Through transitioning - something I spiritually consider a form of Hajj - and finding Allah I began to loose fear.

Now we live in a time where those of us who have studied history have no good outlook for the west. Empire is crumbling and whenever empire falls, it does so with ever increasing oppression until it tears itself apart. I am no longer afraid of this knowledge. I came to embrace the clarity about it.

There is a non zero chance that my people and I - queers, anarchists, artists - will end up in camps again. We see europe slowly but steadily sliding down the path into fascism. And nothing will stop states like ours to ever loosen the grip of oppression. They never have in a meaningful way. Like a boa constrictor, fascism doesn't suddenly come out of the blue but it wraps its authoritarian grips around us, tightening it slowly every time we exhale - every time we step back an inch. Until the people get crushed. Slowly. When you feel it tightening, it is already too late.

Coming to accept this future means loosing the fear of it. And only without fear are we free to resist.

Now what does this have to do with me being trans? Transitioning was what forced me to face this evil. While pre transition I knew I probably had a chance of getting away with just a black eye when things go south, being an all out trans woman means there's nowhere to hide. If they come for us, they also come for me. And if they come for others, it is only a matter of time until they come for us too. They already do in the US and we're already the poster-villian in mainstream fascist propaganda. And once you actually realize that there is no escape, the rage turns into strength.

Now, apart from hinting at the Qur'an being "the most dangerous books to those in power", the movie is also strongly leaning towards both, the greater and the lesser jihad. Both are intertwined and one depends on the other. The lesser jihad, the struggle against injustice that we are all commanded to partake cannot be fought without the greater jihad, the overcoming of our own fears, of our ego.

Fear lives in the ego and as long as we feel fear, we are not free to resist. Evey's transformation in V's mockup prison resembles a form of transition. As does the Hajj, a journey meant to be difficult and demanding (think about walking the dessert for months on end 1600 years ago), aiding in our transformation, see the Creator the awe of creation and become our true selves. A journey not done out of enjoyment but because we are commanded to undertake it.

And as with other Wachowsky movies, its imagery has sadly become a trope within certain circles. A meme used by edgy boys on the internet...

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