The Danish Girl (2015)

The Danish Girl is a movie based on a true story. It tells about the life of Lili Elbe, one of the first transgender in the world. Elbe -- who was born with the name Einar Wegener is married to Gerda Wegener. Both of them are artists. 

They lived a happy marriage life and have not had a child. One night, Gerda paints her husband in lady's clothes and it turns out great. Einar becomes comfortable wearing female's clothes and changes his name into Lili. 

He determines to do sex-reassignment surgery. Gerda, being a feminist and supportive wife, helps Einar---or, Lili---to get the surgery. It is one of the first male-to-female surgeries. The procedure fails, Lili Elbe dies from infection.

There are scenes when Einar gets abused for being so feminine. The confusions, the tears, the questions, they are all represented very tense throughout the movie. The film sets in 1920 where our knowledge about queer folks is a little bit to nothing.

Einar has seen many doctors and most of them diagnosed him suffering from some mental illnesses. It is not false at all. American Psychiatry Association has decided that gender dysphoria is indeed a mental illness. A gender dysphoria is a state where one identifies different gender than what they were assigned from birth.

We can see in the movie, Einar is being approached by Henrik in the party. It is the first time for Einar showing up in public cross-dressing and using the name Lili Wegener. Henrik is a homosexual. He immediately knows that Lili is Einar. 

Henrik tries to seduce Lili and he kisses Einar. Einar who enjoys the attention at first, gets uncomfortable and leaves the party with Gerda. It shows that although he suffers gender dysphoria, Einar is not a gay. APA states that gender dysphoria is not the same as homosexuality.

Identity conflicts need to continue over time to be considered gender dysphoria. How the gender conflict occurs is different in each person. For Einar, he already has the identity conflicts since the first time his childhood friend, Erik, kissed him when they were young. But, Einar repress the confusion as he saw his father beat Erik good for what he did. The question comes again to the surface since Gerda paints Einar as a woman. The paintings are very mesmerizing, bringingGerda to her very first exhibition and people like it very much.

Research shows that mismatch between sex and gender identity can lead to distressing and uncomfortable feelings that are called gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition, for which treatment is sometimes appropriate. It's not a mental illness.

Some people with gender dysphoria have a strong and persistent desire to live according to their gender identity, rather than their biological sex. These people are sometimes called transsexual or trans people. 

Some trans people have treatment to make their physical appearance more consistent with their gender identity (http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gender-dysphoria/Pages/Introduction.aspx).