HoustonVoice.com
New documentary examines politics of the female-to-male trans experience
Identity politics can be a treacherous labyrinth among gay men and lesbians, but adding transgender issues to the mix has historically proved confounding and maddening to all sides. The debates about transgender identity and its interface with lesbian politics and feminism undergo some tough and revealing scrutiny in ?Boy I Am,? a documentary created by Sam Feder and Julie Hollar.
Profiling three female-to-male transsexuals, ?Boy I Am,? examines the place of transgender men in the lesbian community, a former home and safe haven for many trans men. Feder and Hollar round out the stories by interviewing academics, activists and a physician about the process and politics of changing one?s body from that of a woman to that of a man.
Nicco is by far the most compelling of the three men, partly because of his willingness to let himself be seen ? emotionally and otherwise. His climactic moment comes toward the end of the documentary when he finally gathers together enough money to have his breasts removed, and the audience is allowed to see the surgical process involved.