Friday, May 15, 2015

Let Me Die a Woman (1977)

How bad is it? It's a Doris Wishman documentary. Consider that fair warning.
Should you see it? Yeah, but I wouldn't watch it on a date.

When I saw this film, I didn't know Doris Wishman had directed it (she used one of her many aliases), though all the signs were there - dull sexuality, confused viewpoints, static delivery, etc. This film is about people undergoing gender reassignment surgery and the surgery itself is shown (a point when a lot of men cringe). There's a scene where a dildo is used to demonstrate the formation of a new vagina, but it's pure exploitation and I think it's actually someone born female. The weirdest thing is that there's a horn that alerts you of times you might want to look away. The film does have a real doctor and real patients, but mixes in fakes and it sometimes seems to try to elicit compassion, only to have another scene immediately following that's  unadulterated sleaze. I've known half a dozen people who're transgender and none of them had ever heard of this film; that's probably a good thing.

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