I thought similar thoughts to you, but only to the first five minutes when he was navel gazing and saying things like “do I exist? Who am I?” which I thought was ridiculous and unnecessary but I found the doc overall really good, and I didn’t pick up on him being rude or smarmy (though I thought exactly the same as you about the professor and the music in the background interspersed with footage of the professor droning on when it was obvious that Matt was asking him questions in between but those questions were edited out to make it seem like the proff was droning).
But overall, I liked his approach. A Louis Theroux approach, IMO, would have been too passive for something like this and allowing the crazies to ramble on confidently, and with this subject (say, unlike the Westboro Baptist Church where *everyone* knows they’re crazy) I think it needed a few interruptions and “hang on…WHAT?” interjections.
HATED the ending though! Thought it was very cheesy and schmaltzy!
Adding: You must be coming up to the end by now, or soon, so leave an overall review if you feel like it, I’d like to read it! But picking up on you saying Matt was rude - I thought the people he was interviewing were far ruder!
And I felt so sorry for the FTM person who was crying on camera and showing her skin graft scar for penile surgery (don’t know if that’s the correct term) and pleading, crying, that children shouldn’t be allowed to do the same.
I have just finished it now, as I was watching it on and off all evening. Yes, the ending was pure stilton!
I don't know, re: Matt, I just feel like his vibe was off. I do think that the craziness of what many of the interviewees were saying would stand up, even without him being provocative. That's what I mean about Theroux, his passivity often just lets the subjects give them rope to hang themselves.
Also, he is way at the uber conservative end of the spectrum. He was saying that biological sex dictates gender, which also seems to reinforce gender roles, by my personal angle is that men can wear dresses or vice-versa, but it doesn't make them the opposite sex. He seems like he would have a pulmonary embolism if he saw a guy in a dress. His wife also looks like the tradwife meme lol. Like he went all the way to Africa to speak to a tribe that reinforced his beliefs about sex/gender.
It seems like Americans are the worst for using sex and gender interchangeably, and this was apparent here. Why didn't he state that sex was immutable, or ask subjects if they thought that people could change their biological sex, or just their gender? I think that could have opened up some more avenues for consideration rather than just trying to prod at them.
It was an ok watch, but I didn't learn anything new. I have just recently read Trans by Helen Joyce though, which has all of the same points.
Funnily enough, I saw this on Twitter earlier:
Not female, can’t compete with females. Bye!
) made me really sit up and take notice.
