Katie Couric, NatGeo Doc ’Gender Revolution’ Explores ‘Complex Issue of Gender’

Umm, male or female is not all that complicated, really.

1.31.2017 

 

News

 

 Trey Sanchez 

 

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Nearly a year after she brought us her deceptively-edited anti-gun documentaryUnder the Gun, Katie Couric is tackling the “complex” subject of gender in a new documentary for National Geographic, “Gender Revolution: Journey with Katie Couric.”

“We’re a lot more complicated than we’ve assumed,” Couric says in a promo for the upcoming, two-hour documentary. It’s billed as exploring “the rapidly evolving complexities of gender identity.”

Couric “travels across the U.S. to talk with scientists, psychologists, activists, authors and families about the complex issue of gender,” because male or female is now “complex.”

In the video trailer posted above, Couric talks to self-described “social justice comedian” Sam Killermann — an unfortunate last name for someone who corrects Couric’s binary gender terms. Killermann explains how he helps unlock gender stereotypes through an illustrated “Genderbread Person.” Couric called it a “genderbread man” and the comedian quickly corrected her: “person.”

(Well, maybe it is complex if you make it so.)

In December, National Geographic magazine issued a special edition featuring atransgendered nine-year-old boy on its front cover blasting a “Gender Revolution.” Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg called the issue “historic" and explained the reason behind producing the new documentary:

Now that we know XX and XY, and blue and pink, don’t tell the full story, it is time to write a new chapter to ensure that we all can thrive in this world no matter what our gender— or decision to not identify a gender. That is why National Geographic has set out to tell the story of the gender revolution.

At the website for the documentary, there is a downloadable guide for “parents and teachers” to help start a discussion with their family or students. The clearly anti-science guide purports to help navigate the “shifting landscape” of gender identity by indicating that, “Gender is a social construct" and how "Western culture starts to impose its values before we are born, even in the way we decorate nurseries for babies.”

“The bottom line is, your external genitalia does not dictate your gender,” Couric concludes.

The documentary premieres on Monday, February, 6.