Elliot Page's Netflix series documents actor’s gender transition with haircut

Actor and star of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, Elliot Page, has made headlines once again, this time for the in-show gender transition of their character from "Vanya" to "Viktor."

Page, who went by "Ellen" until announcing that they identified as a man in December of 2020, has been at the center of controversy recently as psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson was suspended from Twitter following the use of Page's "dead name," which was used for over 20 years in show business. Commentator Dave Rubin was then suspended from Twitter for defending Peterson.

In the second episode of the newly-released third season, The Umbrella Academy scripted a narrative in which Vanya Hargreeves, a female superhero played by Page pre-transition, became transgender and changed their name to Viktor. The transgender transformation was depicted by Vanya, who has long hair, walking into a barbershop and getting a haircut. Short hair, it turns out, really does make the man.

Later, a short-haired Viktor emerges in a scene when they are confronted by their superhero siblings for potentially botching their plan to save the world.

"Who elected you Vanya?" asked Page's on-screen brother, Diego Hargreeves.

"It's, uh, Viktor," the newly short-haired character replies.

"Who's Viktor?" asked Diego.

"I am," Viktor replied. "It's who I've always been." The scene casually continues as the siblings gloss over their sister now identifying as their brother as they go back to criticizing Viktor's strategy in their fight to stop the apocalypse.

The scene was met with mixed reviews, with Ian Miles Cheong criticizing the "woke" social rules that are meant to dictate how fans are supposed to perceive Page's past work as "Ellen." Netflix has already changed Page's name in the credits to fit their current identity as Elliot, however the episodes of the show where they play a woman named Vanya are still up.

It is unclear if the show writers plan to do anything beyond a haircut to transition Viktor, which makes the situation all the more confusing, considering Page has already had their breasts surgically removed in real life. The show has seemingly reduced gender to a chosen name and haircut.