My newfound interest in Katie Couric began when I watched her question her role in the sexualization of the female news anchor in the film Miss Representation. She expressed her concern that she started the trend of anchors wearing short skirts to accentuate their legs and, looking back, was baffled at the media’s obsession with her personal life and stereotypically assumed catfight with Diane Sawyer. As the first woman to anchor CBS Evening News alone, Couric grasped “the opportunity to mix it up a little” and perpetuated “the message that a woman could be as confident as a man in an important, powerful role,” as she explains in Miss Representation.
Picture courtesy of Cinema Thread
Since she began her trailblazing career in the 1980’s, Couric has continued to fearlessly pave the way for progressive and revolutionary discourse to be had across the nation. Last Monday, National Geographic premiered what is arguably her most radical and profound investigation to date. In the two-hour documentary Gender Revolution, Couric, doubling as the producer, “sets out to explore the rapidly evolving complexities of gender identity.” The documentary consists of interviews with doctors, scientists, therapists, and students. They discuss the evolving fluidity of gender and the evolution of the conversation surrounding it, especially among our generation.
This is an issue of concern especially regarding recent legislation and our political climate. According to Marie Claire, Couric stated: “There’s a high degree of nervousness among people in that community, but it’s heartening to see that this is a social movement which has really gained speed. This is a segment of the population that’s not going to go backwards in terms of speaking out, making their voices heard and demanding rights. This is an important time.” Oh yeah.
So Couric embarked on yet another investigation driven by mainly her own curiousity and desire to inform the public. She told The Huffington Post, “I set out on a journey to try to educate myself about a topic that young people are living with so effortlessly — and get to know the real people behind the headlines. Because the first step to inclusiveness and tolerance is understanding.”
Picture courtesy of National Geographic
In her humble, curious, and straight/cisgender/white female way, Couric did just that. The documentary started with a narrative about how, back in the 1950’s when Couric was born, times were more “simple,” more binary, and defined by pink and blue, girl and boy. Actresses like Mary Tyler Moore were focused on changing gender roles… now we’re trying to change the meaning of gender itself. She begins by speaking with Sam Killermann, a social justice comedian, who states that “we need to talk about penises and vaginas” and explains that “gender expression” is how you present yourself to the world. Case in point: how he was sitting in a typically “feminine” way (legs crossed), while Couric was ironically “manspreading.”
The film then delves into explaining a condition where babies are born with an intersex identity, or CAH (Congenital adrenal hyperplasia). A possible reason for this can be that the male organs receive too little testosterone or the female organs getting too much, resulting in male and female sex organs. The condition is made personal through the stories of Rosie, a baby born intersex, whose parents opted out of the controversial surgery that oftentimes leads to psychological distress later on in life.
She also spoke to Gavin Grimm, the catalyst for the nationwide bathroom debate and the famous Supreme Court case about using the bathroom for the sex you were assigned with at birth or the one you choose to identify with. She finishes off by speaking with the trans owner of several El Pollo Locos in California, the trans actress and activist Hari Nef, trans tennis icon Renee Richards, and discussing the different jargon related to the evolution of gender identity, such as “transtrender,” those “hopping on the bandwagon” for the sake of being trendy.
National Geographic
Throughout the film, Couric emphasizes that she is curious and eager to learn, despite being cisgender and unfamiliar due to her age and privilege. She told Marie Claire, “The documentary was directed at people like me—who didn’t have a clear understanding of these issues. People who want to know more, want to understand, but don’t have an apparatus to do that. Since it was for people like me, I thought it was okay for me to be their proxy.”
The film’s encore premiered Friday night but you can catch in on National Geographic’s website, YouTube, and in their magazine’s January issue, in the article also titled Gender Revolution.
Catch a sneak peek here: