Secrecy and Sexual Identity in 'XXY'

• In Event: Beyond Queer: Intersex, Transgender and Non-Heteronormative Visions of Human Bodies and Relationships

Abstract

XXY, the 2007 Argentinean film directed by Lucia Puenzo, tells the story of an intersex teenager raised as a girl who struggles with her sexual identity and with the secrecy that surrounds her ambiguous body. The film illustrates how Alex’s family pressures her to decide what gender she should choose while keeping her condition secret from a community that does not understand or accept her for who she is. Alex meets a teenage boy, Alvaro, and soon they have a sexual encounter that convinces Alex to accept her intersex body and allows Alvaro to explore his own gay desires. The entire film is cast in an atmosphere of secrecy as are the lives of so many intersex people in today’s Western society. This paper looks at the portrayal of non-heteronormative sexual identity as teenagers make sense of their bodies and their desires in a society shrouded in silence.

Author

• Valeria Fabj, Lynn University