In about 1 hour Oprah is supposed to have a panel of intersexed persons on her show. If it happens I will let you know about it afterwards. I expect Oprah to do a good job of it.

I also thought it was well done. They started with a very feminine x-y girl who seemed to have no gender conflicts and was very sympathetic then they branched out into persons a little harder to understand for the general public. The last half of the show they interviewed the author of 'Middlesex'. That was also very good. And it was great to see this stuff being presented to the public in a positive way. Getting an endorsement from Oprah is about as good as it gets.

I watched it.  It was well-done.  However, I think that when we are trying to explain a condition to a group of people larger than an audience, seriousness is needed at all times.  My two cents.

tink

I only saw the latter half of the show, but I wasn't thrilled about two things:

1) Oprah kept pushing this "spectrum" idea of hers, saying something like, "so we have this spectrum of people with heterosexuals on one end, then homosexuals, then transgenders at the other end..." Once again, here we go that you just get more and more gay and eventually become transgender. It seems people just cannot wrap their heads around the idea that TSism has nothing to do with whom you want to have sex with. In fairness, her guest did try to describe physical sex, sexual orientation and gender identity... but no one pointed out that this "spectrum" idea is a myth. I missed the beginning, so I don't know where this silly idea got into her head, but she kept referring to it as "I really like this spectrum idea you mentioned," so I can only assume it was presented as fact by someone earlier in the show.

2) In describing the difference between intersexed people and transgendered people, Oprah said something like, "so intersex people are born with their condition, while transgender people *decide* they were born in the wrong body later in life." Great. So basically it's a "lifestyle choice" then.

I'm glad the subject(s) is getting such great mainstream exposure, but I just wish it would focus more on dismissing the stereotypes and myths out there, rather than reinforcing them.

~Kate~

Hi Kate,

Those items that you didn't like didn't jump out to me when I saw it. I think you are more sensitive than I am but I went back and looked again. The first 30 minutes were just interviews with the guests. That part was terrific. Oprah mentioned 'spectrum' two times but I didn't notice anyone else saying that. The expert she had on is Alice Dreger. Whom I couldn't find saying 'spectrum'. When Oprah said it Dr. Dreger explained about gender, sexual orientation, and physical sex. So she didn't say "Oprah, you are wrong." she just went into her explanation. OK, Oprah could make a mistake. But I have read things about Dr. Dreger here that are not too flattering. Never the less I thought the show was positively oriented and reasonably good.