Film Review- "Middle Sexes"

 

The main thesis of “Middle Sexes” is the turmoil and discrimination transgender people face in different parts of the world.  The film shows the different levels of discrimination that they face including; violence that is geared toward transgender people, gender assignment at birth from their doctors and how different cultures and religions change the way society views transgender people.  The film aligns with what we have been studying from a less than human standpoint that society views people who are different than the norm.  Especially when sexuality is in question or a variation from the rigid boxes of man and woman, we as a puritan/Christian society in the United States cannot accept the differences. In Alice Dreger’s Gender Bender, where she talks about the changes the doctor’s make when they believe the sex is not distinguishable meaning the clitoris is too large or the penis is too small to be categorized in the safe boxes so they make the change causing destruction for years to come.  When we came upon Judy’s story in the film where he was classified a male hermaphrodite but the doctor decided to make it a clitoris and that he went years into adulthood as a female “with parts that didn’t look normal” according to the other girls and then to a relationship with a female.  He now is a man and I couldn’t help but think, if that doctor wouldn’t have made that choice for him how different and maybe less painful his early years would have been.  The topic I found most convincing is how transgender people are treated in different cultures.  When we came upon the Koata in Thailand, that made we think about because of certain religious beliefs that we demonize certain groups.  In the Buddhist faith, transgender is recognized and not categorized as bad.  With the 300,000 in Koata living in Thailand, they are often found in what we would consider in the United States as prestigious jobs such as the entertainment industry and the modeling industry.  In the video, “Looking Back, Pushing Forward: DSM and Gender Identity Disorder”, it looks at gender identity as an illness in the same book as multiple personalities or schizophrenia.  If we didn’t classify gender identity as a “disorder” in the United States would we look at it differently?  I believe we absolutely would.  I would have liked to have seen more examples of different cultures but I like the diversity they showed and the societal pressures that are inflicted.

Reference

Magnuson, Danielle. 2011. Alice Dreger, Gender Bender.  www.msblog.com

Looking Back, Pushing Forward: DSM and Gender Identity Disorder. Video accessed from Social Deviance 360 class blog.