TransGeneration

I viewed this film after reading a favorable review in the magazine Transformation: A Magazine for Men Who Enjoy Being Women. There were stills from the film, including pictures of the main characters. The magazine itself is chock full of pictures of nude transsexuals, in various states of transition--most often, with voluptuous breasts and a penis--and lots of "how to" information.

I liked the film but wanted to hear more about sex--in particular, the sexual motivations of Gabbie and Raci. I wanted to know why, from a sexual standpoint, they wanted to have sex reassignment surgery and become women. The magazine gave me some clues, but I wanted to hear it from them.

More than "male" and "female". More than your view or her view or my view or any one person's view of what makes "male" and what makes "female" and everything in between. Sexuality (gay, straight, bi, asexual, etc) is different than gender (male/female) and can have nothing and yet sometimes everything to do with the other.

There are gay men and straight me and bisexual men, too. Whatever they identify as has no impact on whether they are also transsexual and seek re-assignment into a body that fits them more. It's not some sick fetish or crazy delusion. Surgery, hormones, these are RISKY! And they would not be undertaken unless other options HAD been explored and found unable to cease the ache inside.

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is real. Transition (the process of taking hormones, living as the preferred gender in all things, surgery, etc) is not a CURE but it can make life bearable.

And I think it's funny that still male to female transsexuals are regarded more often as "real" and the female to male transsexuals are ignored.

Raci has known she was trans it appears most of her life. She started taking hormones while she was still in what should have been her male puberty. So, of COURSE she looks "more feminine" but that doesn't make her any more or less of a "real woman" than the other MTF, Gabbie. Gabbie is a lesbian while Raci is straight. See how this works? Gabbie likes women, Raci likes men. It has nothing to do with one being "right" and one being "wrong".

There is a world of difference between a man relating to a woman and a woman relating to a woman. Just as a man relating to a man vs. a man relating to a woman. And it's not all sexual. It is entirely plausible that a man would transition into a woman and still be attracted to women. Hello, the gender changed, not who they were attracted to!

I'm just so tired of seeing so many people picking apart transsexuals. We are not here for your amusement. We are not here to be some star in your porn show. We are real. And these kids do an amazing job showing that. But I see that the majority of reviewers are more wound up over the "sick fetishes" and one MTF being more female convincing than the other.

I would love to see the same folks who brought us this (a more emotional struggle) to also do one documenting the physical changes that happen and how FTMs, in particular, struggle with the emotional effects of T.

- Will

This is an interesting documentary about several college-age transsexuals. Unfortunately, it lacks a conceptual framework. The film does not delve into the underlying sexual motivations of the main characters, i.e. are Gabbie and Raci autogynephilic or homosexual transsexuals? What are their motivations for pursuing sex reassignment procedures? Autogynephilia has been defined as a weird, autosexual exhibitionistic fetish in which an otherwise unremarkably masculine heterosexual male is attracted to the fantasy of being a sexually seductive woman. Homosexual transsexuals are feminine gay men who undergo sex reassignment to be more attractive to straight men.

Based on this film, I would urge Gabbie and Raci, to reconsider the irrevocable decision to have irreversible transsexual surgery. It is irreversible, I repeat, it cannot be reversed! I wonder if they should pursue their sexual proclivities without resorting to surgery and spend the money on graduate school or a downpayment on a house. The film does not explore this non-sexual option.

Most people aught to have noticed by now that not all girls are alike and not all boys are alike. Most people aught to have realized that in spite of some common (not absolute) denominators, there is a LOT of discrepancy along the gender spectrum. In fact, there would be even more were perceptions not pigeonholed by stereotypes, but that's an issue for another time. My point is, if you are a biological male or female you are generally insured a pretty broad range of gender expression without having to fear your gender will be questioned. Long before that, your sexuality would come under suspect.

It makes me sick at heart that anyone could watch a program like this and still come away with such significant misconceptions as "so and so is not convincing as a female". I've known a lot of genetic women who could be considered unconvincing and have never had their gender marker challenged. I know tom boys who are straight, feminine men who are not gay, and masculine men and women who ARE gay. A person need only know how they personally identify to qualify for the right to be treated with the same respect as their non-transsexual peers. No sane person (and you can't transition through legal channels without being medically certified as sane) would put themselves through the unparalleled turmoil that a transsexual does if they didn't feel that it was paramount to their peace of mind. Try living your life - your whole life - in a Halloween costume and you might begin to get an INKLING of what a transsexual feels.

The purpose of this program is to show you that it's not just the "wackos", not the people on the fringes of society who live their lives like a 24 hr rave party, not old men with wives and children going through a midlife crisis, who are transsexuals. It's ordinary people. Young and old. And this documentary does a better job of illustrating it than anything I've seen before by highlighting the lives of four different types of people from different walks of life and not angling for shock value or excessive drama.

It disappoints me that people could watch this and still be left with narrow ideas about the way that things are. The reality is, the world is diverse, and diversity is beautiful. It disappoints me, but I know that I should be content if it changes minds and broadens perspectives even just a little bit, because that's a monumental accomplishment in its own right. And I believe that this program is capable of doing that. It is the quintessential resource among the available media on this subject, in my opinion, for introducing someone to a better understanding of transsexuality. So if you know a transsexual and want to understand it, or are one and want it understood, or simply have a thirst for knowledge or the motivation to challenge your beliefs, I recommend TransGeneration highly.

Watch it. Share it. Help make the world better.

I am not sure why the first person would direct people to read J. Michael Bailey's work... or why the second person would say that it is as if J. Michael Bailey wrote this himself...one he couldn't have because it is a documentary, and two his view points are way off compared to the one given by the documentary. Considering his book is very demeaning of the trans community. And he was forced to resign from Northwestern University as the department head, because of his illegal uses of his patient's information in his book.

"They seem like different species, because they are."
I am not sure if I would say that the kids in this documentary are another species... or even that I am another species. They are humans as well and to reduce them to another species is simply rediculous.

I am not sure why everyone is referencing him, because his view on Transgender people is extremely negative.

... but to the documentary. I think that it gives a great overall view of the trans community, showing that we can stem from all different backrounds, and we can act in all different ways. Just as there are many different "normal" gendered people, there are many different trans people as well. I believe that ScubaOtter "seaotter7" has the best overview of it.