Middle Sexes Analysis

In the United States, it is most commonly taught that there are two genders: male and female. However, the 2005 documentary Middle Sexes challenges that idea by looking into the cultures of other countries throughout the world. While a large portion of the United States population thinks that non-cisgender and queer people are unnatural or freaks, that opinion is not global. Many people who follow Christianity in the United States find it morally offensive to be anything but straight and cis, while many other religions and cultures embrace non-binary and queer people as the doing of their god. Middle Sexes looks into the differences between the North American social standards for gender and how they are clash with other cultures’ beliefs. The

documentary leaves the audience to beg the question: are we thinking the right way?
One of the first stories told in the documentary is the story of a Christian family with an ambiguous son named Noah. Noah is a cisgender male and lives as a boy, but he has stereotypically feminine tendencies and flocks to things that are, in our gendered society, labeled for girls. His parents love him and want the best for him, but are concerned for his well-being in their small, predominantly conservative Christian town. In her article “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,” Anne Fausto-Sterling writes about the birth of intersexual people. Many physicians perform surgery on intersexual newborns immediately upon their discovery of the child’s biology. Fausto-Sterling writes that the aim of the physicians is to give the child an easier life so that the child can “slip into society as ‘normal’ heterosexual males or females.” Though Noah is not an intersex child (he was born into the typical XY male body), I think that his parents want what the physicians who preform gender reassignment surgeries at birth want. They want their kid to have a normal, easy life. And I don’t see anything wrong with the wishes of Noah’s parents, because they said repeatedly in the documentary that they will love Noah regardless of Noah’s gender and sexuality.
During the interview with Noah’s parents, his mother specifically said that she was Christian and that she loves her son despite what is taught in church. But, I think that religion causes a lot of conflict when it comes to gender and sexuality. I will speak from personal experience, and I don’t want to offend anyone’s beliefs, so I will try my best maintain the “in my experience” and the “I” mentality. I was born into the typical XX chromosomal, female body. I am generally comfortable in this body, with some slight discomfort on a very rare occasion. But, much like Noah, I grew up being interested in things that were seen as “for boys.” While other girls were playing dolls and trying on their big sisters’ dresses, I was outside playing with Tonka trucks in the dirt and trying on my big brother’s suits. My female friends were interested in shopping and going to the mall; I was interested in fishing and going to Home Depot. I wore tee shirts and jeans most of the time, and I hated getting dressed up because, for me, that meant wearing a dress or a skirt, and I hated that.
It came as no shock to my friends when I came out as gay during my sophomore and junior years of high school. I got a lot of “yeah, I figured,” and “I mean, you wear a LOT of flannels” in response to my coming out. But what people didn’t and probably still don’t realize is that it took a lot of time, emotional instability, and self-reconstruction to get to the point where I could audibly say “I’m gay.” My parents raised me and my five siblings as Roman Catholic, and it is accepted by many who follow that religion that homosexuality is wrong. I figured out that I was gay in the seventh grade, but I pushed it away. I literally tried to pray the gay away. In eighth grade, I received the Sacrament of Confirmation through the Catholic Church. I tried so hard to be what God “wanted” me to be. And I panicked when I realized that, despite my best efforts, I’m as queer as a three dollar bill. So, during my freshman year of high school, I stopped being so devoted to the church. By the end of my sophomore year, I wasn’t going to mass anymore. And, by the end of my senior year, upon being asked about my religion, I answered “I’m agnostic.” But, it took four years of constant change to be that point. Had I not been Catholic, I would have had a much easier life from seventh through twelfth grade.
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Erving Goffman is a very well-known example of a sociologist who follows symbolic interactionism, which as a school of thought focuses on face-to-face interaction.

On the topic of gender, he believes that we are constantly trying to give the best impression of our gender, and we form our gender on a daily basis. Goffman calls this “impression management.” He also believes that our identity is formed through our day-to-day interactions, so if someone was to question my gender (which has happened in the past), then I would, in turn, question my gender. Though I believe that at least some part of what Goffman is saying is true, authors Don Zimmerman and Candace West argue against his theory. In their collaborative work “Doing Gender,” the authors present the idea that others’ opinions of an individual’s gender, and which gender they see that individual as has nothing to do with one’s display of

gender.
In the case of Noah, the child whose story was included in Middle Sexes, his daily self-presentation to the outside world was male.

He wore clothes marketed towards boys to school. However, children still questioned his gender. This could be due to the highness of his voice or the toys that he played with, I don’t really know. But these kids’ questions did bother him. He didn’t want to answer them, and he was convicted in that fact. It could be that he doesn’t honestly know that he is a boy or a girl, or that he knew and just didn’t want to answer, but there was an emotional reaction to the question, which in my opinion, is what Goffman was trying to

show.

Now, on a daily basis, I present myself as a very masculine female. I wear mostly men’s clothes, except for my pants because a part of having the XX chromosomes for me was getting the XX hips that come with my family, which are not hips made for men’s pants. Before, I mentioned that I hated getting dressed up as a kid, and I still kind of do. I need to evaluate every situation that I get dressed up for. Is it safe for me to wear men’s clothes? Will people be disrespected by a tie and vest on a woman? It is sometimes difficult for me to decide what to wear, and it causes anxiety. And I think that this stems back to Goffman’s idea of impression management. There are people who I don’t want to think or to know that I’m gay because I am afraid of their reaction. So, I wear a dress, both literally and metaphorically, to impress or satisfy them.
I have a lot of ideas about sex, gender, and sexuality. But I think the message that the film Middle Sexes and the readings are trying to enforce is that the United States’ opinion of gender and sexuality is just a cultural thing. If someone is Trans or intersex or queer in any way, that’s okay. The U.S. is just stuck in this binary view of the world. We like groups of two. They’re easy. If I had grown up in Suriname, the idea that I love and am attracted to women would be seen as God’s will. As long as I was being good to my girlfriend or wife, I would be doing everything right. I think that it is an absolute shame that I grew up believing that I was a mistake and an abomination because of who I love.