I am a transgendered woman who is a lesbian and who has been approved for Sex Reassignment Surgery ("SRS") and I found this movie very irritating. It had potential and it was quite good in parts. However, it had errors that perpetuate misconceptions that often make life difficult for transgendered women in transition. Avoiding those errors would only have needed professional diligence on the part of the scriptwriters. The story would not have been affected. Thus professionalism must have been absent.
First, to be transgendered is not the same as to be transsexual. Yet even the DVD box, let alone the script, refers to Bree as a "transsexual woman". That's not true as far as anything in the movie reveals. She is evidently a transgendered woman, her male body doesn't match her female self-identity, but there is no indication that her sexuality and its orientation have changed. So it's silly and wrong to call her transsexual.
Second, she is on hormones, taking oestrogen. If one is on a path to SRS, then oestrogen is best avoided if possible. It reduces what the surgeon can work with. If taking oestrogen anyway, one must stop several weeks before surgery to lessen the risk of blood clots.
Third, Bree says, "It's genetic." No, it's not that simple. Gender is established during the first three years of life. Usually the result is not a mismatch with the body. Sometimes it is a mismatch. More often than not a strong, perhaps primary, contributing cause of a gender to body mismatch is environment.
Fourth, after the first operation it is as if that's it. All over. It isn't. Even if the first operation, the vaginoplasty, is so successful that there are no adjustments, some months later, when that is healed, then there is labiaplasty. No mention is made of this, which is unfair, idealistic, misleading, maybe even lazy, simplification.
And there were other implausibilities. For example, although Ms. Huffman's acting was good, her direction was not. That's the only reason I can think of for occasions when Bree affected femininity in an almost cartoonish, Tootsie-like way. Also, if she was taking hormones, her male organ would not have been as prominent as shown. On that matter, even without hormones, the corsetry was laughable. Ordinary "firm-control" briefs are more than adequate for avoiding a "boy bump" in any snug clothing situation.
And then her family. Unbelievable scenes. Literally incredible to the point of comedy, whereas a skillful, realistic depiction could have been useful. Instead, one's disrespect for the filmmakers was confirmed and deepened.
I could go on, but won't. There is neither time nor space.
What was the point of the movie? If it was to use drama to depict and support what it is like to be a transgendered woman, then, thank you, nice try, but not a very helpful try because the errors left a lot of misconceptions intact.
The story? Well, that was so weak that it was almost invisible. So no comment.
Pity. This movie's intentions, whatever they were, were presumably good. But it failed.
First, to be transgendered is not the same as to be transsexual. Yet even the DVD box, let alone the script, refers to Bree as a "transsexual woman". That's not true as far as anything in the movie reveals. She is evidently a transgendered woman, her male body doesn't match her female self-identity, but there is no indication that her sexuality and its orientation have changed. So it's silly and wrong to call her transsexual.
Second, she is on hormones, taking oestrogen. If one is on a path to SRS, then oestrogen is best avoided if possible. It reduces what the surgeon can work with. If taking oestrogen anyway, one must stop several weeks before surgery to lessen the risk of blood clots.
Third, Bree says, "It's genetic." No, it's not that simple. Gender is established during the first three years of life. Usually the result is not a mismatch with the body. Sometimes it is a mismatch. More often than not a strong, perhaps primary, contributing cause of a gender to body mismatch is environment.
Fourth, after the first operation it is as if that's it. All over. It isn't. Even if the first operation, the vaginoplasty, is so successful that there are no adjustments, some months later, when that is healed, then there is labiaplasty. No mention is made of this, which is unfair, idealistic, misleading, maybe even lazy, simplification.
And there were other implausibilities. For example, although Ms. Huffman's acting was good, her direction was not. That's the only reason I can think of for occasions when Bree affected femininity in an almost cartoonish, Tootsie-like way. Also, if she was taking hormones, her male organ would not have been as prominent as shown. On that matter, even without hormones, the corsetry was laughable. Ordinary "firm-control" briefs are more than adequate for avoiding a "boy bump" in any snug clothing situation.
And then her family. Unbelievable scenes. Literally incredible to the point of comedy, whereas a skillful, realistic depiction could have been useful. Instead, one's disrespect for the filmmakers was confirmed and deepened.
I could go on, but won't. There is neither time nor space.
What was the point of the movie? If it was to use drama to depict and support what it is like to be a transgendered woman, then, thank you, nice try, but not a very helpful try because the errors left a lot of misconceptions intact.
The story? Well, that was so weak that it was almost invisible. So no comment.
Pity. This movie's intentions, whatever they were, were presumably good. But it failed.