Me, My Sex & I made uneasy yet intelligent viewing
TV Review: Me, My Sex & I handled a sensitive topic well, but the balancing act between harrowing childhood stories and hard science was poorly executed.
http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/reviews/872098-me-my-sex-i-made-uneasy-yet-intelligent-viewingWhen a friend has a baby, what's the first question you ask? 'Is it a boy or a girl?' has to be pretty near the top of the list. It seems a straightforward question but how would you deal with the answer: 'We don't really know yet'?
Except that only the bravest parents will be able to say: 'We don't really know yet' when confronted with the news their baby has been born with ambiguous genitalia and is clinically defined as 'intersex'.
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TV review: Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape; Me, My Sex and I; Renaissance Education
John Crace
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 August 2011 22.45 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/aug/11/tv-review-monty-halls-irish-escapeMuch more worthwhile was Me, My Sex and I (BBC1), a film about sexual development disorders. In the hands of Channel 5, this would have almost certainly been turned into a piece of voyeurism, but left to the Beeb it was a sensitive documentary about a surprisingly common problem. Gender is not a fixed entity; rather we are all on a male/female spectrum and there is about as much chance of getting caught somewhere indeterminately in the middle as being a twin.
There's also no right or wrong way of dealing with it. Doctors have to pick a gender for the birth certificate and parents have to find a way of surviving the fallout and bringing up their children as best they can. It's a condition fraught with unhappiness as there are few guidelines and no clear rights and wrongs. The programme featured those who wished they had been operated on as children and those who were furious with their parents for never having made it clear to them sooner that they were in some way different.
