Vaishnavi Sundar, “Dysphoric: Fleeing Womanhood like a House on Fire (Part 4: For a Gender Critical Future)” (2020)
In the final episode of this four-part documentary series, director Sundar exposes the damage and harm done by gender identity ideology and woke politics on women and girls, not only in Western countries, but especially in countries of the Global South, formerly known as the Third World. Interviews with counsellors, feminist activists and individuals who have undergone detransitioning demonstrate the extent to which gender identity ideology has penetrated Western societies at all levels – political, corporate, cultural, educational – so much so that even many women see nothing at all strange about transgender women invading the spaces originally reserved for women, as in women’s sports, or claiming sports sponsorship or scholarship money that would usually go to women. A British Labour politician tells of having to leave his party for disagreeing with the gender identity ideology / woke politics adopted by the then leader Jeremy Corbyn. Researchers like Raquel Rosario Sanchez and Lisa Littman give examples of how their work on women’s issues and gender dysphoria and detransitioning has been shunned by academia and film festivals.
The most devastating part of this episode shows how queer theory and identity politics, initially developed in Western universities, have now invaded many countries in the Global South where they are used by governments and academia to justify policies and programs that have the effect of pushing back whatever progress women’s movements in those countries have made to advance women’s rights and achieve equality. In addition, women and girls come under the new pressure to transition into becoming transgender men without necessarily knowing if they will actually be accepted as males or being made aware of the possible physical and mental health issues they will have to deal with as well. Sundar uses examples of cuttings of newspaper headlines from her home country India to show the impact that queer theory and woke politics are making in one Global South country, and the harm such ideology is creating for women and girls in that country.
The series ends on a note of despair and pessimism, though one detransitioning activist who appears in all four episodes expresses an optimistic view that, after changing her body to suit “the system”, she is now determined to change the system so that other girls and women will not suffer the pressure to change as she did.
Generally, the series has been informative and educational though it is slow and the use of wall-to-wall interviews in all episodes may be tiring and beyond the knowledge and educational levels of teenage and young adult viewers.