Educational Media Reviews Online

The concept of ‘normal’ still weighs very heavily on the minds of individuals trying to have children. As we change as a society, many birth-related issues have become easier to discuss, however, babies born with variations of normal male or female genital anatomy still present a difficult issue.

This film reports that five babies a day have surgery to ‘correct’ the natural anatomy that they are born with. There are a wide variety of disorders that cause the birth variations, such as Aphillia, hypospodias, micropenis, Swyer Syndfrome, and others. Some conditions are observable while others may not be discovered until a child reaches puberty or even much later in life. However, they are clustered into a group called ‘intersex’ conditions.

One in 2000 presents candid interviews with individuals and family members who have had to deal with a variety of disorders and how their family’s and society’s efforts to make them normal have in fact created greater stress and negative outcomes. Those interviews are mixed with older black and white film footage offering a sharp societal contrast on what is ‘normal’ verses what is the reality. The film’s intent is to promote the concept that these birth variations are in fact ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ and that we should teach better understanding about natural individual variations.