The Opposite Sex: Rene’s Story is a documentary directed by Academy Award-nominated Josh Aronson that focuses on Rene Pena, a female-to-male transgender, and his medical transition. The documentary is stunning in its frank and often unflattering portrayal of 32-year-old Rene and the surgery that he undergoes in his journey to become “a whole person.” The story of his transition includes the anguish and uncertainty felt by 28-year-old Wona, his wife of twelve years; the heartbreak that his family feels as they come to accept him as a physical male; and Rene’s tentative steps toward joining the transgender community.

Growing up in small-town Indiana in what appeared to be a fairly fundamentalist, working-class family, Rene always identified as a boy and dated girls in high school. He bound his breasts as soon as they began to develop and always hated his female body, declaring as early as age three that he was a boy. Conversations with his mother and family also show that Rene always vehemently denied being a lesbian; interestingly, his family seems to have been more accepting of the possibility that Rene might be gay than he was.

One of the most touching and complex aspects of The Opposite Sex is Rene’s wife Wona, who
was an inexperienced sixteen-year-old when they began dating. Having never had sex with a man, Wona nonetheless explains that sex with Rene was fulfilling for her, although she was unhappy about not being able to touch him or see him naked. When Rene is outed at their church for being biologically female, Wona’s perceptions of her marriage to Rene begin to change and she questions whether she has been happy in their relationship, both sexually and emotionally. Her journey to understand herself and what she wants out of life is a moving counterpoint to Rene’s single-minded desire to make for himself a male body.

Throughout the documentary, Rene emerges as an extremely stereotypical man. He is brusque, combative, sometimes offensive, often angry toward Wona for not understanding him, and expresses so much loathing toward his female body that as a female viewer, it is difficult to empathize with his struggle. On the other hand, his pride in the body he has created through working out and his mastectomy—a day he calls the happiest in his life—is almost heartbreaking to see.

At one point he auditions to become a male stripper in order to show off the physique he has sculpted, and it is painful to watch as the club’s owner tells him that women would be “confused” by his body. Even though from a distance Rene looks every bit like a man, it is true that there is something there—perhaps a faint residual scarring from his mastectomy, or the bit of fat remaining around his hips—that makes one pause and consider whether he is male or female.

For Rene, the best and final proof that he is a man will come when he is in possession of a penis, which he believes will make his “outsides match [his] insides.” To fulfill this dream he initially considers phallophasty, which involves removing skin from another part of the body to create a penis that is attached to the body. While the surgical penis may look somewhat like an actual penis, it does not perform like one and is not capable of an orgasm.

Disappointed in his dream to have a large penis, Rene reconsiders his options and meets with Dr. Peter Raphael, a surgeon who is known for performing metoidioplasty, which surgically releases the clitoris (which has been enlarged due to testosterone hormone therapy) from its hood and reconstructs the vagina to give the appearance of a small penis with testicles. Although this procedure doesn’t create a large penis, it does allow orgasm.

One of the most incredible aspects of this documentary is the fact that Rene and Dr. Raphael allowed the cameras to enter the operating room to film the procedure taking place. While this may be an uncomfortable scene to watch, it is groundbreaking because it is something that has never been seen by the public, and it also brings home exactly how medicalized transgenderism has become. As a child Rene insisted that if he wasn’t a boy, “God can make me one.” It turns out that God, in this case, is Dr. Raphael.

Although the majority of “The Opposite Sex” deals with Rene’s medical transition and his difficult relationship with Wona, the LGBT community does have a cameo appearance. After Rene and Wona are rejected from their church, they attend services at the Metropolitan Community Church, a church for GLBT Christians. After the services Rene mentions to one of the pastors that he has been homophobic in the past and rejected “homosexuals,” and the pastor, to her credit, does not do more than blink at his words, merely welcoming him into their community.

Rene also meets with a group of FTMs led by Jamison Green, an FTM activist, and talks about what it means to be a transgender man. Green is part of the half-hour panel discussion titled “Sexual Dialogues: Women to Men” which accompanies Showtime’s airing of “The Opposite Sex.” The panel features two FTMs (including Green), the wife of an FTM, and a psychologist who specializes in transgender issues.

This panel discussion is a welcome counterpoint to The Opposite Sex because it reminds us that not all FTMs look or act like Rene, who often comes across as overly macho. It also provides another opportunity for discussion of transgenderism in the LGBT community through the experiences of Michiko and her partner Stephen, who transitioned from a lesbian to a man. When Stephen underwent sexual reassignment surgery, Michiko was asked to leave the “lesbian organization” to which she belonged because it did not tolerate male/female couples. Unfortunately, this experience is not elaborated on and we are left with the feeling that all FTMs are excluded from the lesbian community. It would have been enlightening and helpful if there had been more of a discussion about where transgenderism fits into the LGBT community, and what kinds of conflicting emotions arise when lesbians transition into men.

Although The Opposite Sex is extremely difficult to watch at certain points—especially the surgical scenes—it is valuable because it reveals a very personal struggle with gender identity without oversimplifying the issues involved. Unfortunately, Rene is not the most appealing character to go through this process with, and the underlying homophobia and sexism that he expresses is not examined.

This documentary and its accompanying discussion, however, do bring to light many of the problematic issues around transgenderism, including the meaning of gender; biological versus psychological aspects of gender identity; homophobia; and transphobia. By airing these documentaries, Showtime has made a significant contribution toward furthering a dialogue about these issues.

The Opposite Sex: Rene’s Story and Sexual Dialogues: Women to Men air consecutively on Showtime this month.