Review of Transamerica (2005) by Emeraldcity — 05 Sep 2014

I suppose this film was created to draw attention to what a transgender person goes through in order to be a complete male to female transexual. I think the film fails on more levels than it succeeds on.

Firstly they didm't use an actual transgender person to play the part of the one in the film which is a joke in this day and age and secondly the film soft pedals the American Psychiatric Association definition of a transexual- a definition that was actually created by a tuberculosis specialist in America-not a psychologist or a psychiatrist-in 1960-completely disregarding earlier psychology/psychiatry work with the subject of transsexualism in Europe-not that it would matter now because times have changed so much since then.

Worth mentioning and not addressed by the film the APA definition of transexual also treats the subject of sex change as an issue that applies to men who have done tough guy jobs but who now want to be the other sex and as such it is a complete joke.

Also not dealt with by the film is that the US definition of transexual also fails to take into account that we no longer live in gender polarized times and that many males grow up any way they want to because that is the age we live in.

WW2 didm't just end a few years ago. The filmmakers might think they are standing up for transgender but showing a 'transwoman' who looks like she just did her shift at the bomb factor in WW2 is nothing but scheisse of a different colour-as is the rest of this film.

Does that 'draw attention to a problem ?' I'm not sure of it does-it sort of reinforces the problem aspect of things-in this viewers opinion. I guess you cannot be smart if you are not smart.