I was probably about six years old when my mother told me about the baby boy she almost had. The baby that would have been born with an extra chromosome; an XXY. The doctors advised she terminate the pregnancy or risk having a very sick child. This was the 1970s, and little research had been done on chromosomal abnormalities. Today's evidence shows that if my mother had not been pressured to abort that baby boy, he very well may have grown up healthy and strong, with minimal behavioral issues. Nothing like the terrors the doctors had warned her about.
As a sophomore in college, I began feverishly studying the topic of intersexuality. I pored over Foucault's The History of Sexuality and obsessed about Anne Fausto-Sterling's theory of a five-sex gender model. Perhaps, I thought, it was part of my life's purpose to educate people about intersexuality, in homage to the baby who died so that I could exist.
Imagine my intrigue when I discovered the award-winning film XXY. Directed by Lucia Puenzo, this edgy, enthralling film explores the dramatic soul-searching of one intersex fifteen year-old, painfully straddling two worlds. It's a passionate depiction of the tumultuous road from desire to discovery. Puenzo called to discuss the film from her home in Argentina. — Alexandra Godfrey
What inspired you to make this film?
It was a writer who's right here with me — my husband, who wrote a short story about an intersex named Alex, and as soon as I read that short story I knew I wanted to do that film.
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