By Elaine Cassel

The basic plot line of Transamerica is not original—a father finds out he has a son he didn’t know he had. Only this father is on the verge of completing his sex change to become a woman. “Desperate Housewife” Felicity Huffman is not exactly the actor you would expect to play Stanley, a man who has always wanted to be woman, but she gives a remarkable performance in this role.

Stanley has been going through the physical and mental health treatments that are part of the standard medical protocol for sexual “reassignment.” Stanley is a transsexual, meaning that he is anatomically a man but has the gender identity of a woman.

No one knows the origins of the transsexualism, but it might be related to the sexual organizational effect of the sex hormones (estrogens and progestins) that occur around the time of birth, when certain brain areas are sculpted into “male”- or “female”-like behaviors. These brain areas are described as “sexually dimorphic” and may affect human sexual behavior. For example, research indicates that one area of the hypothalamus that is typically larger in men then in women may be smaller in transsexual men, like Stanley, who request sex change surgery in order to become female. In fact, this brain area in transsexual men is about the size usually seen in women (Bernstein, et al., 2006).

The film shows how integral mental health treatment is to sexual reassignment. Here, the therapist will withhold approval of the operation unless Stanley/Sabrina (also known as “Bree”) levels with her son and tells him she was his biological father. This will come as a big shock to Toby, since by the time Toby meets his “father,” she already passes as a woman, thanks to the hormone treatments she has been taking in preparation for the surgery.

Bree isn’t the only character with “sexual” issues. While his father has sexual identity issues, Toby’s are those of sexual orientation—the sex of the individuals to whom one feels personal attraction. Toby is a gay hustler. And if that is not enough to give his “parent” pause, he also wants to be a porn star. This ambition is too much even for Bree to feel positive about.

Where does sexual orientation come from? This is a topic of intense debate in scientific and political circles. Are people “born” gay? Or do they “become” gay? Research is inconclusive. Some research has suggested that genes might indeed influence sexual orientation. In a study involving identical (having the same genes) male twins adopted at or shortly after birth by different parents (and thus, raised apart) in which one brother was a homosexual, 52 percent of the other male twin pair was either homosexual or bisexual, compared with just 22 percent of non-identical twins pairs and 11 percent of pairs of non-twin brothers. Homosexuality may be related to hormonal differences during prenatal development. Studies have found that women exposed to high levels of prenatal androgens (the male hormone) may become lesbians. These hormones, in turn, affect the hypothalamus, which, as we mentioned in the case of transsexuals, in turn affects sexual behavior (Bernstein et al., 2006).

Adding to the “nature” argument as the root of homosexuality is the fact that no research has found any environmental effects—how or by whom one is raised, for instance—on sexual orientation. And though Transamerica is not a research study, the fact that Toby never even know his father, suggests that point. If Toby’s sexual orientation can be traced to his parents at all, it must be through the mechanism of genetics or prenatal environment. Toby’s desire to be a porn star could probably be attributed to the cultural milieu in which he grew up.

While depicting provocative sexual and gender issues, Transamerica is all the more remarkable for exploring typical family dysfunction issues in the context of unusual sex and gender issues. Bree’s gender issue only adds irony to more typical story of a father having fathered children he does not know about (this plot line is suggestive of the recent movie staring Bill Murray, Broken Flowers).

Does a person’s sexual identity define them as a parent? Is Bree any less of a “father” because she feels like—indeed is about to become—a woman? Of course not. After all, she will still be Toby’s father, in addition to taking on maternal roles. Are her concerns for Toby’s chosen profession more maternal than paternal? Our answer is “yes” if we accept the gender-based stereotypes of prenatal behavior and think that the origins of these instincts are in her transsexualism. It is “no” if we believe that parental behaviors and concerns are too complex to be attributed to the parent’s sex or gender.

It is precisely these gender-bound expectations that are also challenged by the movie. Further, Toby’s desire to be a gay porn actor is only different in degree to the kind of larger issues that parents have to grapple with as their children search for identity. In this case, that identity just happens to include sexual/gender issues of the child, swirling around the more dramatic sexual issues of the father/mother.

Reference: Bernstein, D.A., Penner, L. A., Clarke-Stewart, A., & Roy, E. J. (2006). Psychology, 7 th ed. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

Elaine Cassel, Marymount University and Lord Fairfax Community College