XXY (2007)

Directed by Lucía Puenzo, XXY is another one of Puenzo's films exploring adolescent sexuality. El niño pez (The Fish Child) and Wakolda (The German Doctor) were two of the Argentinian director's other films that we explored in class.

XXY explores a story and a perspective I feel largely goes ignored-- that of a intersex teen. Alex is 15, and has lived as a girl though she possesses male and female genitalia. Her mother is very intent on having her daughter live a "normal" life, pressing her to continue taking female hormones, and keeping her sheltered from their surrounding town, even going so far as to invite her friend and her husband a plastic surgeon to their home for a consult, without informing Alex or her own husband.

Alex's father is more accepting of the ways his troubled child views her own gender-- actually, his sometimes stumbling attempts to connect to Alex and understand where she's coming from were by turns the most endearing and embarrassing moments from the film. At one point, the man recounts the story of her birth, and the surgeons that wanted to operate her as soon as they saw her "deficiencies"-- and he describes knowing she was perfect the moment he laid eyes on her. Though, in what came off weirdly comical to me, there was another plot point through the movie that her father assumes that Alex wants to live as a man (simply because he learned she likes to have penetrative sex...) and then stalks a trans man from their community that he'd read about in a newspaper, to see how it worked out for him.

But Alex, however she herself might be confused and still questioning her gender identity, manages to express that she doesn't want what either her mother or her father want for her: she wants to live as both, something in between male and female.

The use of marine life and water motifs were very well employed. Alex's father is a marine biologist, and runs a sea turtle rescue off the coast of a fishing village. Even Alex and her family's last name, Kraken, is a creature from the deep. Trans and intersex kids often identify with creatures like mermaids, because what they have below the waist doesn't matter. And the fluidity of many marine animals' sex was a good metaphor for Alex's gender exploration.

I think Puenzo explored the ramifications of a complex gender identity very well, looking at several categories of conflict-- Alex's internal conflict about her own gender, her conflict with her family, her romantic, platonic, and sexual explorations with different love interests throughout the movie, and the outside conflict of people in the town who view her as a monstrosity.

One thing I don't think was explored as complexly was the relationship between Alex and Álvaro-- by movie's end, it appeared like the two couldn't be together because Álvaro was simply gay and wanted someone with a penis. That's a bit ludicrous as far as understanding sexuality goes, and I felt like it came off that Álvaro really did love Alex.

Otherwise, a well made and intriguing look at intersex identity.