I have just finished watching this amazing film .

I was amazed that they didn’t shy away from or tip toe around any of the issues,it was clear as day and directly to the point. Unlike many films with content of this nature,meaning sexual ambiguity,Inter Sexism,Transgender issues or anything that strays away from the male or female “norm”. Norm or normal not being my words but society’s.

XXY is heartbreaking and tense in some scenes,Loving and accepting in others.Most of the acceptance comes from her father who thinks she “Alex” is perfect just the way she is and she herself is accepting of who she is so she stops taking the female hormones that will alter her body to be more feminine because she is confused and not sure what gender she really identifies with or maybe she just identifies with both.Something most people do on some levels.This film brought me to tears in several scenes because I understand the pain and weight of the “what if someone finds out factor”. The surgeons son that is visiting Alex’s family starts hanging out with Alex and she becomes quite sexually aggressive with him straight out of the gate.

He shy’s away at first,not because of her XXY condition because he is unaware of it even though his father is there to see if all involved will allow an operation to fix Alex’s so called handicap.

When they do have sex I was shocked at what occurred and that they showed it.I wasn’t shocked as in it doesn’t happen but as in that they had the guts to actually show the act itself.

There is also a very disturbing scene where three boys “older” decide they want to see for themselves what she has as they say “down there”.She was so tough and bold throughout the film that when this occurs you finally see how emotionally and physically vulnerable she really is.It’s a film that would be entertaining to anyone not just someone close to this issue.I say bravo to the film makers and writers for being so brutally honest,after all this is how it really is.

I’m still reeling from watching this film last night. I’d watched it because someone had mentioned seeing it (a friend on Facebook) and she’d described it as “disturbing.” Living in PA, a relatively conservative area, I’m assuming now it was not a positive “disturbing” that she inferred.

My take away on this film was it’s beautiful simplicity. I ache for the decisions and categorization that those who are not “gender specific” must go through. It can not be easy. But who are we to make these breathing, living, emotional people feel that they must categorize themselves? The girl, Alex whom this story is about summed it up perfectly “maybe there is no choice.” I’d like to know more about the background of this film, the actors, etc. But taking it as a movie, I know there are many who have had to deal with this situation and it can’t be easy. Are we as society forcing them to deal with what they were born as/with? Yes, to some extent we are. But we must also realize that with both male and female traits and body aspects, comes hormonal signals that must be very difficult to deal with. Knowing that you look like a girl on the outside, but act with agression at times due to the male aspects of yourself, yet being attracted to one particular sex or both, can not make it any easier.

It is a two fold (society and self) anxiety that these folks must deal with (just as transgendered/transexual folks deal with). Some don’t have both sets of genitalia but their minds or bodies often do not agree with the physical representation that they present, male or female. We as a society have a long way to go to accept people as they are. Who are we to judge? We can not know what a person feels (unless it is ourself!).

I love this film, the contrast of the simplicity of dialogue, the slow pace of the film with the extreme pain this character was experiencing. The beautiful thing in this film was the undying support that her parents provided. They had the option to have the situation surgically “taken care of” at Alex’s birth, however they opted not to, the father stating that when Alex was born “she was perfect.”