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Abstract

In 2001 and 2002, the award-winning PBS series NOVA broadcast a film on intersexuality and the ethics of sex-assignment surgery titled Sex: Unknown. This article examines the way in which the discursive nature of PBS undermined the program's attempt to represent a critique of this controversial procedure. Framing the controversy as a scientific argument about gender determination rather than as an issue of medical ethics, NOVA transformed a political debate about medical policy into a scientific mystery to be solved by medical experts. As a result, Sex: Unknownnot only failed in its stated goal to educate the public about the intersex movement and the controversy surrounding this procedure but stands as an example of public television's limited ability to serve as a forum for political commentary and social change.

Keywords

intersex/intersexuality sex-assignment surgery gender determination discourse citizenship public television NOVA

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Sex Assignment Surgery and the Discourse of Public Television: The Case of NOVA's Sex: Unknown

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