Every Body (2023) Poster

(2023)

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5/10
Understanding the "I" in LGBTQI+ -- "People don't know what it is"
evening129 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Here's a chance to learn about a marginalized population within the marginalized population of LGBTQI+ -- intersex people.

The documentary focuses on three young adults with sexual characteristics traditionally associated with both males and females. The protagonists discuss their backgrounds, which could involve being told to keep their condition a secret. "Society is so binary," we're told. "You feel so alone...Your body is a problem."

We also learn about efforts to improve things for new generations of the intersex, particularly by preventing childhood surgeries aimed at creating sexual consistency, done with parents' consent but typically without the young patients'. At one demonstration, marchers chant, "Unless I say, scalpels away!"

The movie spotlights the tragic case of a young man who, due to a botched circumcision in childhood, was raised as a girl until he shed that identity. He eventually committed suicide. Excerpts from "Dateline" programs about the case point to problems in children being told what sex they are.
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10/10
Finally a modern day intersex film!
abuchmeyer21 June 2023
Finding out that you're intersex and realizing that there are no resources or information on sex development disorders is pretty disheartening and frustrating. My intersex condition was kept hidden from me by my parents until I received genetic testing on another rare disorder I had ...at age 35! Turns out this is pretty common in the intersex community!

After watching this film at an early screening, I don't feel too isolated now as an intersex person. We are very much considered outcasts by society from the start.

Thanks for giving us intersex folks a voice in a very crowded LGBTQIA environment.
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10/10
Very well made
boself24 August 2023
People are judging this documentary on their own beliefs and opinions and not on the fact that this is a very well made and informative document. And that's such a shame. I fell a bit in love with the beautiful people being portrayed in this film. They ate all so well spoken and had the ability to inform me about the subject. There were heartbreaking stories and the moral of this documentary is that individuals have to make their own decisions when it comes to gender identity. No-body (pun intended) else should do that. No doctor, no parent. Only the individual.

Thank you makers, for producing this phenomenal, heartfelt film!
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10/10
Uplifting and informative
lizfigenshu3 July 2023
This film offers an enlightening look at the complexities, struggles, and joys of the intersex community. The filmmaker includes important historical context about medical theories and treatments, as well as the deep secrecy surrounding intersex individuals that has kept this community invisible for too long.

The three main subjects of the film each share their unique quest to fully understand and take ownership over their existence in this world. By forming connections with other members of the intersex community, these individuals have learned to harness their power and celebrate their differences.
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9/10
Everybody Should See This!
dtporter-886-88302019 August 2023
Everybody should see this. You will be changed, in ways you did not even know needed to be changed. You will never view a gender reveal party the same way. Every Body teaches, explores, and affirms. Everybody should experience Every Body.

Years ago, when my first doctoral candidate revealed that a significant portion of her subjects in her dissertation study were intersex "boys," I was floored. I'm the professor. I'm the one who should know the implications of studying nonverbal behavior with this special group. I did not. Well, I listened, I read, I learned... or so I thought.

Every Body brought me to a new, better informed, and empathic understanding of intersex people, an understanding that has become a core foundation for my communicating to others. Thank you Sean, Alicia, River and special thanks to David for his sacrifice. We failed David; but Every Body showed a path to redemption. The Christ would be proud of the love shown in this documentary.

Julie Cohen directs us to new heights of appreciation. Thanks to Fisher, Oppenheim, Berg, O'Brien, Cole, Nguyen, and Knizhnik for bringing this great documentary to the screen. You've changed lives, my friends!
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10/10
While not its primary purpose, this movie changed how I view trans people
jjohnson-2600514 July 2023
The movie profiles three intersex people and describes what it means to be intersex. Prior to seeing this movie, I did not know that intersex people existed. These are people whose physical genitalia doesn't match the normal presentation for their chromosomal sex. For this reason, these are people for whom gender at birth is ambiguous, since they have biological traits of both genders.

This first great thing about this movie is that it presents cases where the phrase "gender assigned at birth" makes sense and is explained! I'm a liberal voter, but have bristled at how trans vocabulary uses "gender assigned at birth". I never got it- how could gender be "assigned"? By profiling intersex people, this movie explains cases where in fact gender is very deliberately chosen.

The second great thing about this movie is that it presents intersex conditions simply as "different bodies", people for whom a typical combination of chromosomes and genital anatomy didn't happen. I think most people can point to something that makes their body different from "normal"- intersex people just had this happen when it came to their sexual anatomy. The concept of "different bodies" really humanized intersex, and by extension, trans, people for me. You can physically see on an intersex body why gender is ambiguous. What's not to say that trans people had different sex hormones in utero, and their brains are different? In order words- trans bodies are different too- we just can't see the differences?

Finally, the third and last great thing about this movie is the story told by Alicia Roth Weigel. She is a beautiful, blond-haired, dress-wearing, very feminine looking woman. If you saw her on the street, you'd think she is a typical woman, but she has XY chromosomes! She is the perfect spokesperson to show that genital anatomy and chromosomes together don't fit perfectly into two boxes. Trans stories are often told by people whose physical look is atypical for their gender. Ms Weigel tells her story as someone who identifies as a woman and also looks very feminine.
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10/10
Must watch!
tgvbholife19 November 2023
The best thing ever. Everyone on the Earth has to watch it. Such a masterpiece. So educational. Made me cry multiple times as a non-binary person.

The best movie for trans people to see, and also others to understand us.

It is also amazing how the story is very serious, sad, and also cheerful. The past doesn't define them, and they chose to live their best possible lives, being authentic to oneself. I wish everyone had the support they have from their parents.

Also glad to see that they could make changes to improve lives of other people!

I wanna give the biggest longest hug to David. Heartbreaking. The things he went through. I wish he was still alive.
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9/10
Power and informative
okpilak20 October 2023
The movie primarily focuses on three intersex individuals. It is estimated there are 230,000 intersex persons in the US. They have the chromosome XY, and they are not the trans population. It is a wide range of differences in the sexual anatomy of the individuals, but the bottom line is that it is complex and evolving. And their main desire is to allow the individual to make the decision of how they want to live their life as they grow up and understand who they are, and to stop the intersex surgeries of which they have no choice about just to conform to society's definition of male/female. So much of what has been in textbooks simply is wrong, and they give the example of twins, where there was a medical mistake at age 2, and he was then raised to be a girl, with devastating results, worsened by the prominent doctor who kept reporting that things were going so well. If anyone is looking for anything sordid in this movie, they need to go elsewhere. Thoughtful, informative and certainly providing a picture that most know nothing about.
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Terrible movie, tried too hard
zackocr6 September 2023
The movie tried so hard to push it's point across to the audience, a point that if i may say, has been well and done with time and time again, that it forgets that it is supposed to be a movie to entertain the viewers of the movie. The entire time I was watching this was just spent waiting for the movie to end. It is honestly one of the most bored I have ever been watching a movie or TV show, and any high reviews are just people trying as hard as they can to not be transphobic or homophobic. I think movies should be made to entertain, not to try and persuade somebodys political views. That is a massive waste of time, money and rescources, which pretty well sums up this movie.
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