My Brother My Sister: Story of a Transformation
Well-known feminist film critic Haskell calls this a story of a transformation, which is accurate in a way, but on another level this is a story about emigration. Indeed, she refers to her sixtysomething brother Chevvy as a gender migrant after he tells her of his decision to leave his gender designation behind and travel through personally uncharted territory to become a woman. The decision meant he had to forsake not just his male organs  via surgery but also all the familiar trappings and language of masculinity, to say nothing of his wife of two decades. And just as the family of any migrant must adapt to the idea of him in a new place, with a new aspect and language, Haskell had to either accept or reject Chevvy’s sexual relocation, as it were. For the liberal-minded feminist, the adjustment wasn’t as easy as one might expect. Because if Chevvy’s course was uncharted, hers felt like leaping into a black hole. Haskell eloquently chronicles the emotional torrent both siblings suffered as brother became sister. --Donna Chavez