Review of Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She

The film begins with a sensitive treatment of trans-gendered issues in the West, but quickly digresses into a banal presentation about the diversity of male sexual desire. Eastern societies are presented as more accepting of gender difference and sexual orientation. The elephant in the living room is the Asians, all transitioning male to female, support themselves as sex workers and exotic dancers. Another escapes third world poverty to live with a much older married man who left his wife and children for a teenage Asian "lady boy" he met on the Internet. The bit about the African lesbians is so out of place that it seems thrown in as a cynical attempt to provide some sort of balance. Accepting the "rainbows within rainbows" of gender is a fine thing. Exploitation of a woman or child, whether born female or choosing it for herself, is appalling and uncomfortable to watch.