EVERY BODY - Mark Reviews Movies

Every Body, Focus Features

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 29, 2023

Director Julie Cohen's Every Body is an easy and accessible documentary about the lives of three intersex people. All things considered, that seems to be the correct approach here, if only because the topics of gender, sexual identity, and sexuality have become so heated as of late.

There are those who would outright deny the existence of the film's three subjects, simply because they do not fit into some strict social standard that sex and/or gender can only be a binary matter. Whether or not this film could or will change any minds is a subject for a different day, but its deeply personal approach to storytelling almost certainly might open some minds and hearts. If that feels like a low bar for the documentary's potential power, it's simply a reflection of how divided and entrenched in those divides too many people have become recently—or remained for a long time.

Most of the film simply allows the three subjects to speak freely and honestly about their experiences—from childhood, through adolescence and young adulthood, to the present day. Some of those experiences are broadly shared by the trio, but the difference of specifics, particularly of the many variations of intersex traits and conditions (more than 40, according to most updated list at the time of filming), makes an immediately compelling case that sex exists on a spectrum that's far wider than a mere duality.

At this point, it should be made clear that any description of the three individuals focused upon within the film is meant to reflect their own words and stories about their lives and identities. Take Sean Saifa Wall, who identifies as a man but was assigned the sex of female upon birth and raised as such.

He was born with what's called partial androgen insensitivity syndrome, essentially leaving the doctors and nurses present as his birth with an uncertain idea of which of the two primary options regarding sex to mark on the birth certificate. A third option to declare that uncertainty existed on the hospital form at the time of his birth, but they made a snap decision to assign him as female, under the belief that it would make it easier for the individual and family in the long run.

Such decisions were and, to this very day, still are being made, despite the evolution of awareness and discussion of matters of sex and gender. The three people being interviewed by Cohen in the comfortable setting of a backyard do share one thing in common for sure. All of them want this practice, as well as even more extreme ones to surgically alter the bodies of babies and non-consenting children to fit one category of the social binary, to end.

Wall had such a surgery when he was 13, under the pressure of doctors and the consent of a mother who was told by multiple medical professionals that it was not only the correct approach, but also the right one for him. Alicia Roth Weigel, who identifies either by feminine or gender non-specific pronouns, was born with a chromosomal condition.

She looked typically female at birth but was born without a uterus or ovaries and with internal testes. Roth Weigel also had surgery, unknown to her until later in life, to have the testes removed, and there's a real sorrow to her story of bringing tampons with her to high school, simply so that she could have the small comfort of appearing "normal" to her peers.

The final interviewee is River Gallo, an actor who identifies by non-binary pronouns, who was born without testes and assigned male at birth (Gallo's mother still hasn't accepted the pronouns, but it's not for a lack of love and understanding). Like the others, Gallo's story is one of feeling "different" while growing up and never quite understanding why that is. Of the few cases the film makes, the one that silence and secrecy surrounding the issue of intersex people does no one, especially those who experience that life, any favors, while being far more potentially destructive and confusing than hiding the truth and forcing some kind of conformity.

The film's real story becomes one of advocacy and activism to avoid such outcomes, mainly revolving around the issue of forcing or encouraging surgery on babies and children in order to make bodies fit a certain standard (The subjects note the obvious irony of recent laws that ban medical care for transgender people, while making certain there are loopholes in place for these non-consensual practices to continue). The case, of course, is implicitly but strongly made by the stories of the film's three subjects, but Cohen does dig a bit deeper to examine the origins of these practices under the questionable study and guidance of John Money.

Of particular focus is the tragic, horrific case of David Reimer, who was essentially experimented upon to prove one of Money's theses. The failure of this twisted experiment has gone mostly unpublicized, although Money's false reports of its success still define much of the modern thinking on how to "treat" intersex people.

At a time when people's lives and identities are being politicized in order to limit their rights, Every Body stands as a frank, thoughtful, and, most importantly, empathetic salve. If society is going to function for everyone, we have to work to understand each other in the full range of humanity, and on a foundational level, this film helps to make that work possible.

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