By Trent Horn
This past weekend, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars. Even conservative commenters are praising the film and encouraging people to see it.
But not me. I will not see this film in theatres.
I refuse to support the propaganda that is intrinsic in the film’s casting of Elliot Page, AKA Ellen Page, to play a male Greek soldier (who wasn’t even in Homer’s Odyssey). Page is a “transgender man”—that is, a woman pretending to be a man after having subjected her body to gruesome mutilation. I cannot in good conscience spend money on something that will lead impressionable children into thinking irreversible sex change operations, including the removal of breasts and genitals, is a healthy decision just because a Hollywood celebrity did it, and they see this celebrity in a film everyone is fawning over.
To be clear, I do not think Christians sin or are bad people if they decide to see The Odyssey. After being force-fed CGI-superhero slop for over a decade, I understand the desire to see a bona fide film. I just hope those Christians will take a minute to see where I’m coming from in wanting not to be part of the box office numbers for this one.
Transgender propaganda endangers more people than just the youths who are tempted to adopt transgender identities. When people who identify as transgender are not affirmed in their identity, they often threaten violence. You can see that in this clip from several years ago, when Ben Shapiro debated Robert Tur, the guy who filmed the OJ Simpson chase, who later pretended to be a woman named Zoey Tur. When Shapiro asked Tur about “his” chromosomes, Tur threateningly put his man-sized hands on Shapiro’s shoulder and said that if he kept that up, he’d be going home in an ambulance.
Indeed, it’s not hard to find posts on social media arguing that “transphobes” deserve to die, as can be seen in memes that include guns and other acts of violence against those who reject transgender ideology. Most “transgender humor” is just fantasies about murdering people who disagree with transgender ideology. And sometimes the fantasies become reality.
Liberals who support LGBT ideology understand the concept of avoiding a film for the ideology it promotes. If Christopher Nolan had casted a famous white supremacist in his film, they would pan and boycott, regardless of the film’s artistic merits, because they prioritize winning the culture wars over supporting objectively good culture.
There is another parallel here. White supremacy is evil because it perpetuates a lie related to biology: that some races are morally superior to others. Likewise, transgender ideology is evil because it perpetuates a lie related to biology. Pope Francis said, “Today the ugliest danger is gender ideology, that cancels out differences.”
People have told me Page is in The Odyssey for only a few minutes, so it isn’t a big deal. But that’s always been the winning strategy for those who want to upend cultural norms.
In 1989, two gay advertising executives published After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s. The authors said the LGBT community shouldn’t lead with over-the-top debauchery, but rather present an image as close to normal as possible and shame people for not accepting it. With The Odyssey, we are seeing the same tactic: it isn’t an over-the top casting decision, like Dylan Mulvaney playing Helen of Troy, but rather a subtle thing. It is easier to move people gradually to accept that “transgender men are men.”
Now, some people may ask me, “Are you not going to ever see a film if it has a self-identified gay person or a transgender person in it? Are you against men playing women in the time of Shakespeare?”
To answer the second question first: yes. It was silly that in Shakespeare’s time, characters like Juliet were often played by a young boy because it was illegal for women to perform on stage. In general, actors shouldn’t dramatically differ from the character they portray unless there is a legitimate artistic or story-driven justification for it.
But casting Page in The Odyssey is solely meant to push this kind of propaganda. I have no interest in supporting that.
I would ask Catholics who go and see The Odyssey: where are you going to draw the line? Imagine if Christopher Nolan teamed up with Judd Apatow to make an Oscar-worthy sequel to the 2007 film Juno, where “Elliot” Page reprises “his” role as a mom who had a teen pregnancy. Say the film got a 99 on Rotten Tomatoes. Should Catholics go see it because it’s “pro-life” and “epic”?
The only way to make a successful stand against transgender insanity, or any insanity, is to confront it. In the case at hand, Christians have made progress in reversing society’s acceptance of transgender ideology. According to Gallup, “in 2021, 46 percent found it morally acceptable, and 51 percent found it morally wrong. Today, those numbers stand at 38 percent and 57 percent, respectively.” Much of this was brought about by Christians courageously and graciously exposing the insanity of transgender ideology, which tries to make things like grown men exposing their penises in female changing rooms totally normal. But when we pretend transgender actors are like any other actor and not part of a hideous Frankenstein-esque industry, we erode this success in winning over the culture.
It’s also incumbent upon Christians not to cover evil with euphemisms. For example, instead of “choice,” we need to call abortion what it is: the dismemberment of children. Instead, of “pride,” we should talk about the disordered nature of sodomy. Ephesians 5:11 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” We need to have the same attitude with transgender ideology.
When I told my oldest sons, who are still in elementary school, about what was done to Ellen Page’s body, they were horrified. They had no desire to see the film (and they can see R-rated films if they are genuine art), because it just reminded them of this grotesque procedure performed on one of the stars.
I hope not just fellow Christians, but anyone who is firmly committed to the nature of reality will continue to normalize what is normal, and not patronize that try to gaslight us.
Trent Horn is a staff apologist at Catholic Answers, the host of The Counsel of Trent podcast, and the author of several books including Salvation Is from the Catholic Church.
It actually wasn’t woke at all; the entire movie was a Trojan horse
You couldn't just say, “It's Woke Crap”?