TÊTU : A Huge Disappointment

Commentary by Curtis Hinkle and P. Derelle, members of OII, Organisation Intersex International

As an intersexed person with the same intersex variation as the character in the film XXY, I am shocked at the continuous misinformation coming from TÊTU (a large gay French magazine). This is not the first time that TÊTU has insisted on marginalising and invisibilising intersex people.

I have read TÊTU’s critique of the film XXY (the only negative one in all the French press I have found so far – and they start by calling the film a little disappointment). I feel it is my duty to correct certain mistakes in the little article in TÊTU which gives an irrational and bizarre view of intersex people. And I understand extremely well why the editors of TÊTU were disappointed with this film. They are totally incapable or seeing anything beyond their own reflection in the characters and this is evident both in theirchoice of words and their analysis of the film. They are blind and deaf to sexual diversity and have reduced this film to being nothing more than about queer and gay themes. However, these are not the topics of this film at all. The film is about intersexuality.

TÊTU also states that the intersex character in the film has two sets of genitalia. No one I know has two sets. That is impossible. (1) Alex has hir own genitalia and TÊTU is sexist in my opinion because the editors describe Alex as being the one who is « spitting on the norms ». They write that s/he refuses to make a choice. Nothing could be further from the truth. Alex does make a choice to refuse further treatment. The choice to be ONESELF.

The director, Lucia Puenzo, is not « spitting on the norms ». She is depicting the rebellion of a young teenager who has had enough with treatments which have been imposed.

S/he looks in the mirror and compares hirself to others and wants to see what it would be like to live in hir natural state without medicalisation.

This film is about freedom from imposed constraints and about the desires of a young adolescent which explores the topic of intersexuality.

Note: TÊTU means STUBBORN in French. A very appropriate title in my opinion and their binary sexist bigotry is one of their most flagrant manifestations of this trait. (Curtis Hinkle)

To read the critique of the film XXY by TÊTU
http://www.tetu.com/rubrique/sorties/cinema.php?id=290

(1) It is true that no one has two complete sets of genitalia in a fashion that one could be the parent of one's own child, but a person can have both male and female features. Also, there are cases of both vaginal and penile duplication, where the person involved definitely has two sets of genitals. The argument that one cannot have four gonads is more powerful than the argument that a person cannot have two sets of genitalia.