Boy or Girl? When Doctors Choose a Child's Sex [video] - Review

Journal of Sex Research, May, 2001 by Michael W. Wiederman

The first third of the video addresses the realization each individual had regarding their gender identity, their decisions to "change" gender, and the immediate repercussions for doing so. From there a variety of issues are tackled as the video progresses. Such issues include reactions from friends and family, life in the workplace, effects of testosterone, surgery, intimate relationships, sexual activity, and children's reactions to having "lost" their mother to sex change.

One of the most powerful aspects of this video is the visual portrayal of the degree to which testosterone alters appearance. In most of these six cases, there would be no doubt that all who meet these people would label them male. One of the individuals is a bodybuilder and has developed musculature that most men would envy. So, when the viewer is confronted with a photograph of this individual posing nude, the stark contrast between the clearly masculine body and the lack of penis is quite powerful. With regard to the link between body and gender, one of the six individuals makes the point that there have always been transgendered individuals, and in those cultures that lacked the technology to change the body via hormones and surgery, members of those cultures agreed that certain individuals were the other gender because they asserted themselves to be. However, in contemporary Western culture our social agreements as to one's gender has to do with appearance of the body, particularly of the genitals.

The video closes with brief updates as to what each of the six individuals has done more recently. At least two of the individuals have published books relating to their experiences as transgendered, and all continue to be successful in various ways.

CONCLUSION

Which video is best? Of course the answer depends on the intended use, the issues one wants to address, and the messages one wants to send. Each of the videos described here has something to offer, but for use in an undergraduate sexuality course I have some opinions as to the top choices. If cost were not an issue (when is this ever the case?), then my recommendations would include Boy or Girl? When Doctors Choose a Child's Sex, Transgender Revolution, XXXY, and You Don't Know Dick. Of course, any one instructor is liable not to have the funds to purchase these four videos, nor the class time to show even selected clips from all of them.

For the price and the quality, it is difficult to justify not owning Transgender Revolution. However, depending on the aims of the instructor, some of the other videos may be more valuable. In the end, it is refreshing to be considering which videos to select from among a group of high-quality, educationally relevant productions rather than scouring to find some video resource on a topic that is at least somewhat relevant for education.

REFERENCES

Colapinto, J. (2000). As nature made him: The boy who was raised as a girl. New York: HarperCollins.

Nicolai, K. (2000). The pedagogical value of As nature made him: The boy who was raised as a girl [review of the book As nature made him: The boy who was raised as a girl]. The Journal of Sex Research, 37, 379-382.