Before watching the film Southern Comfort, I always only considered two genders: male and female. Biologically speaking, there are only two, but, as I have learned from taking this class and watching this documentary, gender is much more than XX or XY. Gender can become a highly complicated issue. Factors such as sexual orientation and genitalia can make being a certain gender more challenging. For instance, Robert was born a woman and always considered himself a heterosexual male. Most Americans only consider there to be two genders.
Our culture is just not accepting of transsexuals because people fear anything different. Seeing this film allowed me to see how persecuted transsexuals are in our society. The main characters' families all disowned them and refused to be seen on camera. Robert or Barbara said during his documentary that you can hate yourself and make others happy or love yourself and make others ashamed of you. He knowingly accepted his fate realizing that by doing so, he would be persecuted for the rest of his life. After viewing this film, I've realized that gender is not just biological; it's mental too.
Although it is difficult for me to draw on any related life experiences to transsexuals, for I am and always have been a heterosexual male, it seems simple to understand what the people in this film had to do. The way they speak of changing sexes in order to make them feel more comfortable with their lives is just something they must do. In their minds, the sex they were born into does not “fit” with how their mind works or what they find appealing. I can only imagine living a lie of a life. How terrible you must feel. Knowing that everyday you wake up, you are not really you. Maybe this is what America does not understand. How can a culture who fears any type of change or outside-the-box thinking accept these “gay, sex-changing freaks?” Although, over the past several years, homosexuals are becoming more accepted in western society, it may take a lot longer for transsexuals to be accepted.
Gender is a mindset. I perceive myself to be a heterosexual male; therefore, that is who I am. Since America tolerates a male mindset in a male body, I've never had any societal problems dealing with my sex. Transsexuals, however, may perceive themselves to be in a different sex's body than that of their mindset. This predicament poses a problem. Can someone really put up with something their entire life that is not who they are inside? Western society is not accepting of this problem because they simply do not understand.
