1.5 ~ Documentary of the Week

"Gender Rebel" (2006)

From Netflix: "Director Elaine Epstein's captivating documentary explores the lives of three biological females who reject the conventional concepts of gender and see themselves not as female or male, but something in between. The camera follows these individuals as they encounter challenges at every turn -- from the strain on their relationships to confrontations from communities intolerant of their way of life -- and find a way to cope with social alienation."

It's only 45 minutes long, so that's kinda cool. The cinematography is very "MTV True Life"...which is fine, I guess. I suppose they did that to give it as much of a "documentary" type feel as they could.

This movie features 3 people, all of which consider themselves "genderqueer", meaning that they feel both male and female, and sometimes they feel like neither. These people are anatomically female, though they do not identify as such. The way I explained it to my sister is that while a hermaphrodite has both male and female parts to an extent, they might identify as a man that happens to also have a vagina, or a female that also has a penis. This is the same, but opposite. Physically, they are one sex, but they are "mentally hemaphroditic" (<-- not a word, I know)...they feel they are both genders.

Another question my sister brought up while watching this with me is that the subjects of the film should have surgery to become male if they do not feel female. One of the subjects made it pretty clear that because she feels neither male nor female, she would feel just as trapped in an all male body as she feels in an all female body, so why chance an operation for no reason? Another subject actually goes and gets surgery, so obviously the choice of whether or not to physically alter their bodies to fit their mentalities is a matter of personal choice and not necessarily priority for everyone.

The first story involves a person that is struggling with telling her mother about the fact that she is genderqueer and that she is binding her breasts to make herself look more male. The second story revolves around a couple that to the naked eye is comprised of 2 lesbian females, though because they are both genderqueer, neither considers themselves females or lesbians. The last story is about a biological woman that has her breasts surgically removed to "make her outside look like she feels inside."

I thought the last story was the most interesting. Kim, who later changes her name to Ryan after having her breasts removed and starting testosterone treatments, starts to have problems in his relationship. These problems stem from the fact that before the surgery, they were in a lesbian relationship, but now that Kim is Ryan, his girlfriend Michelle feels like she's losing her identity within the lesbian community because she is now effectively dating a male. I thought this was interesting because these people's experiences show the gravity of choices made and how doing something that fulfills you can adversely affect someone else. Obviously situations like this happen all the time, where making yourself happy somehow ruins or otherwise changes someone else's situation, but seeing it in such an extreme was intense.

I've always been very interested in sex and gender psychology, and this documentary is Kinsey's scale in full effect. Great documentary, short enough to never drag, and if LGBT issues or psychology are topics of interest for you, you should check this one out.