Film Review

Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She

A documentary film that focuses on the lives of transgender and intersex people not just in America, but around the world. This film compared the social roles and views of transgender and intersex people. With different out comes, it truly opens your eyes to a world of judgment and beauty that have been force in society . The stigma that has been placed on the intersex and transgender community and as individuals can sometimes lead to violent experiences that are done from others or ones self.  This film shows and speaks about personal experiences in their day to day survival, worries, and stories.

 By using personal testimony of individuals, not only from the transgender and intersex community, as well as testimony of individuals that have ties to the community. The film covers the emotional damage that has been caused by gender assignment which classifies an individual as one sex when the internal organs/wiring is truly different. This film also covers the violent attacks that this community fears because they are different and goes against the social "norm".

This film began with a young female named Gwen. She was murdered because she was transgender. One sentence that stood out to me was from Gwen's mother, "Hate kills and it killed my daughter." Gwen was murdered and hid in a forest late one October evening. Three men drove deep into a forest to hide her body after someone announced her secret of being transgender. Gwen had sexual interaction with two individuals that this party. They kicked and punch her and later on they placed her in a shallow grave and pushed her body down with heavy rocks. People feel that their identity has been threatened when they find out about a transgender individual. This tragic story shows the stigma about how not only being transgender but even the partner of a transgender individual they end with violent outcomes.

Middle Sexes relates to this course in many ways. The construction of deviance is society’s way to form an "other" section. The film talks about how people are different and how they are treated because of being born against such social norms. The film spoke about not only Gwen but a boy named Noah. Noah's father feels he didn't choose to be a girl, "It would be a relief if Noah's hormones kicked in and he stopped liking girl stuff." Fausto-Sterling spoke about how intersex children are squeezed into the two prevailing sexual categories. Also, speaking about how society feels that an intersex child would grow up as a "freak in loneliness and frustration."

Now, what is so convincing about Middle Sexes was emotional affects on the people that support the transgender and intersex individuals? Noah's mother and Step-father truly cared about allowing him to grow up how he chose. Noah likes girl things and he knows he's different but he doesn't go as far to call himself a "she/her/female/girl." Noah is not alone because people transition for many reasons, "It's not who you want to be with but who you are." Fausto-Sterling found that 4 percent of births are intersex. This means out of 6000 people about 240 are intersex individuals. It is society that hates variations because biology simply loves variations. It is a religious sacrifice to become a Hesra but now society looks at these individuals as "different." Forced to have only two options: Doing business or begging.

The one thing that film touched on was on how society feels about being transgender or intersex is from the results of an individual having a mental disorder. I feel that if people took this course they could see how this couldn't be true. Who would choose to be have a 50 percent chance that someone will kill them or they will kill themselves. This video we watched for class can show you that society needs to rethink gender and sexual orientation.

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