As I said in the title, general thread, so if you want to post whatever thoughts you have about the movie unrelated to my question, it's all good
In the part where Owen is an adult and rewatching The Pink Opaque, Owen comments that the show is nothing like they remember, and it's cringy and embarrassing. The "new" version of the show we see is a lot more juvenile and corny than what was shown earlier in the movie, which I think a lot of people, trans or not, experience when revisiting shows they watched as a child.
But one thing I noticed that was drastically different in a way that couldn't be misremembered was that the characters were completely different. Instead of two teenage girls, it's four young kids, three girls and one boy. Also all four kids are white, while Isabel/Owen are half-black, and only one of them seems to have the "pink opaque powers". If that one girl with the pink opaque powers is supposed to be the analogue for Tara, then the show Owen sees as an adult is missing an analogue for Isabel. I believe this is what causes Owen the distress we see in that moment, and not the simple fact that it's cornier than they remember. But what aspect of the trans/genderqueer experience is this supposed to represent?
Maybe I'm just reading into it too much, but it feels like there's something significant there, especially since so many other parts of the movie have small details that people who have ever questioned their gender identity can recognize as symbolic of their experiences, and completely replacing what the pink opaque (as a group) is supposed to be when Owen rewatches the show seems like a big detail. I just don't get what was going on with that, if anything.
My interpretation:
Owen watching The Pink Opaque represents observing, exploring, and questioning her gender identity. That's why when Matty (Owen's inner female self trying to show her her real gender identity) first asks Owen to run away and she doesn't follow her (doesn't allow her egg to crack), the TV is shown burning during the scene where the police are investigating Matty's disappearance (Owen burning her desire to question her gender identity anymore)
When Owen watches The Pink Opaque again as an adult, she comments on how childish the show seems nowadays, because she's ashamed that she ever questioned her gender identity when she was younger, an experience many trans people who cracked their eggs in adulthood go through
There is no Isabel in the show because at that point, Owen had completely pushed down her desire to identify as a woman
Sorry if this is hard to understand I'm kind of illiterate
imo the tv is supposed to be the border between "real" life and the show / transitioning and it burning is matty destroying that border and crossing over
Sometimes you suppress it so hard that it feels like a false memory after the fact, because you've been so thoroughly conditioned to expect reprisal that you just shut out the thoughts, mannerisms, and intrinsic tendencies completely, to the point that your denial may include some unhealthy overcompensation... I think the film illustrated this a little bit with the Fight Club-esque smash cut flashbacks to Owen trying on the purple dress while hanging out with Maddy; shots that were never shown in the other scenes because Owen had suppressed the memories.