After her interview with trans fashion model Carmen Carrera resulted in major backlash, Katie Couric realized she had a lot to learn about gender. Instead of backing away from the issue, she decided to dive in headfirst to learn more about gender in America. The result of her efforts is Gender Revolution, a documentary she produced in partnership with National Geographic.

Couric said she wanted to make the documentary because she saw how much she didn’t understand about gender. The film’s intended audience are people who feel the same way. The documentary does a good job of covering a variety of topics related to gender without any single topic feeling rushed or undervalued.

The tagline for Gender Revolution is ‘A Journey with Katie Couric’, and while it does indeed feel like a journey, I think it is more accurately an introduction. The documentary introduces terminology related to gender, sex, and sexuality and explores the history and present status of gender in America. For the most part, Gender Revolution eases viewers into a discussion about gender.

In one scene, Couric discusses terminology with a group of college students, who all state and explain their identifiers. In another conversation, Couric talks to parents raising intersex and gender-questioning children. I was particularly impressed that the documentary didn’t shy away from talking about how being born intersex can impact a person’s life. Couric has in-depth conversations about gender reassignments performed on intersex infants and the controversial experiments regarding gender malleability performed by John Money. 

Overall, I think Gender Revolution does a great job of stressing the importance of having conversations about gender. After all, gender is something every person lives with. This documentary shines a light on how gender (and conversations about gender) affects everyone from young children to adults. While there are many gender documentaries, Gender Revolution gives a thorough introduction to the conversations happening today around gender and gender identity. It is a great starting point if you are looking to learn and start a conversation.