Intersexion / Ponsonby Productions Ltd. ; writer/director, Grant Lahood ; producer, John Keir ; NZ on Air.

San Francisco, CA : Frameline, [2012]

1 streaming video (68 min.)

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For every two thousand births considered blessed events, one intersex baby is born into a life fraught with challenges. In this binary-gendered world, having ambiguous genitalia or something other than XX-female or XY-male chromosomes brings immense social pressure to choose an either/or gender identity. Intersex activist Mani Bruce Mitchell seeks out his/her peers to find community, healing, and a wider view of intersex life: 'It doesn't suck to be intersex; it sucks to be persecuted.' Since the 1950s, the views of Dr. John Money of Johns Hopkins University have led the medical protocol for intersex babies. Specialists prioritized gender-normative outward appearance over self-created identity, not waiting for the children's natural inclinations to emerge. Immediate and repeated surgical and hormonal interventions were foisted on children to 'correct' their physical ambiguities and 'ensure' their happiness. Touting nurture over nature, doctors advised parents to raise their children with clinically assigned genders, surrounded by secrecy and shame. Mani and his/her intersex friends break the silence about the great suffering imposed by interventions that often backfired. Intersex adults recount shame and isolation, mistrust of their families, and being targeted by bullies and predators. Yet a few intersex people are simply raised as-is by accepting families, pointing to greater possibilities for self-creation and belonging in this vital emerging community.

ASP-AVON OCLC KB.

Original version: Intersexion.

Images / Online / Video & Film

English

November 15, 2019

Research, Mani Bruce Mitchell.

Narrator, Mani Bruce Mitchell.