Week's Update

This week has been phenominal for our group! We went on a road trip to Chapel Hill and that was a good bonding experience for our group. We did our first interview and it was awesome! We got some really good information from our interviewee not to mention it looked great!
Chirs and Lexi went to a drag show and club, I am extremely sorry that I missed it but I plan on going with them again. And we were able to get more interviews with the main people of our topic, which we are interviewing one of them this Saturday!
Things are just going really well and it is all starting to happen and come together!

Why Me?

This project is important to me for a few reasons.
I have grown up in a pretty conservative household when it comes to beliefs about hetersexuality being "how God made us" and homosexuality not. And because of my beliefs, I do think that homosexuality is a sin. However, why I am making this film is not to say whether it is wrong or right, because to me or any real Christian, it is not a question of law, it is a matter of the heart and the idea that no one is perfect and no one is any less of a human being for any reason because we all struggle with things. I see no difference in homosexuality and pre-marrital sex and do not place one worse than the other. What people do is their own choice. I just want to stand up as one of the few Christians that are not fully consentrated on the legalistic aspects of religion (like the Pharisees) and the right and wrong of living but to show that everyone deserves to be loved and treated with respect. There should be no violence or strong hatred towards anyone and I feel like this has happened to transgender and intersexed people.

I would also like to educate myself on this topic.

This project is right for me and I fit nicely into it because I am that other voice in the group. The one that says forget about right or wrong, let's look at the bigger picture. I am the conservative yet non-traditional Christian it seems, and that will help the project to connect to those kind of audiences and maybe start a revoluition of love. : ) The bigger picture meaning that as a Christian, we need to be more worried about salvation and showing why we are set apart and the discrimination just lumps us up with the others of this world of hate and ill treatment.
And I am totally the right person to make it because I want to aim this film at the heart of all who see it. I want it to affect people so much that they have to go out right away and do something to help someone else out or talk to someone about what they might be going through.

We all have a lot to deal with in this world. Wouldn't it be better we all not only got along, but also lifted others up even before ourselves.

(I am an idealist.... I know.)

This Week's Update

This week has been productive and very good to help us in our goal of the final project.
Wednesday we met with Shannon and learned that we desperately need to be more informed on our topic and the history of it. I think that the meeting was good and very much so needed but Shannon was right... we should have been doing this already on our own. (not that I wanna make excuses about it, but life right now is way stressful with all the other classes we have and internships, I find it hard to keep up on the project and research/development... but thank you to Shannon and my partners who keep me going when I don't feel like I can go anymore.)
Our group met on Sunday night and we went over and finalized our proposal. We worked really well on that together, I think. It didn't seem so hard when all three of us sat down together and just, hard core, did that thing! It just seems crazy working around everyone's schedule and getting stuff accomplished, but I know it's worth it.
I love my group and wouldn't change it for the world. Thank you Lexi and Chris for putting up with me.

5 Articles

1. Thoughts on Hermaphroditism: Miyatake Gaikotsu and the Convergence of the Sexes in Taishō Japan. By: Algoso, Teresa A.
The article examines the implication of the book "Thoughts on Hermaphroditism," by Miyatake Gaikotsu, on hermaphroditism in Japan. The book recorded around 40 instances of hermaphroditism. Gaikotsu broke down physiological hermaphroditism into five classes based on the presence or absence of external and internal reproductive organs namely, true, false, doubtful, hollow and quasi. He noted that hermaphroditism was not avatism but evolution. Gaikotsu advised that parents not to be ashamed of their children who are hermaphrodites.
This is interesting in relation to our topic because this talks about how hermaphroditism is a good thing and to NOT "fix it" by choosing one or the other, but to accept it as a positive thing.

2. "Is It a Boy or a Girl?" Introduction to Special Issue on Intersex (Vernon A. Rosario, MD, PhD). By: Rosario, Vernon A.
The authors introduce this special issue on intersexuality. A history of the designation of the term, hermaphrodites, which was used for people with genital variations, is given. A definition of the term "intersex" and the frequency of cases is mentioned. Various definitions of intersexuality by clinicians, intersex activists and the socially conservative media are given. Public attention to the plight of intersex people from the "John/Joan" story is discussed. John/Joan's identity was later revealed as David Reimer. A brief summary of the articles about intersexuality in this issue is given.
This article is really close to what we are doing pretty much. This will be dead on to what we need.

3. Intersexuality in the Family: An Unacknowledged Trauma. By: Lev, Arlene Istar.
People born with intersex conditions experience trauma and stigma that have not been fully recognized by the medical and therapeutic professions. Current treatment protocols require rapid diagnosis followed by surgical alteration of infants born with ambiguous genitalia which has led to a lack of thorough attention to the psychosocial issues faced by these children and their families. Histories of surgery and silence have left children and families unable to address many of the traumas associated with intersexuality, including stigma, shame, surgical complications, and potential questions about sexual and gender identity. This article outlines recommendations for alternative treatment protocols. In addition to withholding unnecessary surgeries until children born with disorders of sex development are old enough to be involved in decisions regarding their medical treatment, this approach calls for the inclusion of social workers and other mental health experts as part of an interdisciplinary treatment team to serve as advocates, educators, psychotherapists and family systems experts, addressing ongoing issues in the lives of families and children living with intersex conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This will help our project in researching how these things have affected families and children from prior experiences.

4. Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America, 1620-1960. By: Reis, Elizabeth.
This article explores the changing definitions and perceptions of hermaphrodites from the colonial period to the early twentieth century in the U.S. Medical observers agree that hermaphrodites did not exist in the human species and that patients with confused or ambiguous external and internal reproductive organs were not really hermaphrodites, but cases of mistaken sex. Corrective surgery for anatomical ambiguity became routine by the mid-twentieth century. The evolving determination of the biological and social foundations of sexual identity and the anxiety, expressed differently in different eras, was explored.
The history of this is just what we need to develop our topic and refer to it with the history of how it has become what it is to society's way of thinking.

5. Corrections.
The section presents a correction to the article "Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America, 1670-1960," by Elizabeth Reis, which appeared in the September 2005 issue of "The Journal of American History."
This is interesting because it "corrects" what was said in the historical article.

6. AMBIGUOUS BODIES AND DEVIANT SEXUALITIES: hermaphrodites, homosexuality, and surgery in the United States, 1850-1904. By: Matta, Christina.
Focuses on hermaphrodites, homosexuality and surgery in the U.S. from 1840 to 1904. Need for normalizing surgery on intersexed individual; Dimorphic model of human sex.
Perfect. The not to distant history of hermaphrodites which will help us determine the progression of the situation.

For A Well Rounded Documentary

I am very interested in what Travis commented on, about interviewing people who were dealing with and contemplating transgender/homosexuality and then decided not to go through with it instead of just those who are persuing it. I think it is a great idea and would help round out our interviews and information.
Thank you, Travis.

List of Related Films

Tale of Osaka Love Thief
Middle Sexed
Transgeneration
Boys' Toys
Girls' Toy
Stage Beauty
TransAmerican
How these films relate to our topic is that they all deal in one way or another with situations and people who deal with the issues of gender. They follow the lives of those in this world that are living their lives while being inundated with hate and support, confusion and guidance in these matters.
The toys films are actually commercials from the past decades that have played a big role in modeling and molding the gender differences.
These are all great films to watch and ponder on while researching our topic.