It's a Girl (2013)

It’s a Girl is a documentary film from 2013. Here is some basic information about it:

** Directed by Evan Grae Davis

** Produced by Andrew Brown

** Narrated by Anne-Marie Meeks

** Consultant: Jeff Davenport

** Run time: 63 minutes

PART ONE

This film is about India and China and some people’s dream to have a son. In India and China there is great status connected with having a son and being male, while there is low status connected with having a daughter and being female.

In the old days, girls would sometimes be killed shortly after they were born, while boys would be welcomed into the family. These days, when modern technology is available, an ultra-sound machine can be used to determine the gender long before the child is born. If the unborn baby is a girl, the mother will often get an abortion. If the unborn baby is a boy, the mother will do everything she can to carry him to term and to make sure that he lives.

The general feeling, the general tradition, in these two countries are the same: boys are a blessing, while girls are a curse. But the reasons for this are not quite the same.

In India, the woman’s family must offer a dowry to the husband’s family when they get married. That is why a daughter is seen as a burden, and that is also why a son is seen as an asset. When he gets married, a man can demand a huge financial contribution from the bride’s family. Officially, the dowry has been outlawed for many years, but the tradition lives on and it is very strong.

Officially, it is also against the law to use an ultra sound machine to determine the gender of an unborn child, but the urge to know the gender is strong, so the law is often disregarded. Doctors earn extra money when they perform this test, and since they are not likely to be punished for this, they have a clear economic motive to carry out the test.

China introduced the one-child policy in 1979. If the first child born in a family was a girl, it was difficult or impossible to try one more time in order to get a boy. Therefore the Chinese couples who wanted to have a boy wanted to know the gender while the woman was still pregnant. If the unborn child was a girl, they would want to have an abortion, so they still had a chance of getting a boy next time.

The one-child policy was abolished in 2015. Now Chinese law allows every couple to have two children, but since this change was introduced two years after the film was released, it is not mentioned in the film.

PART TWO

The policy to have as many sons as possible and as few daughters as possible is known as gendercide: killing unborn babies because of their gender. It is a horrible policy which cannot be justified.

In this film we learn how and why it happens. We also learn what will happen in the long term if this policy is not stopped or at least modified to some extent. Indian and Chinese men will have a hard time finding a woman to marry, because the number of women is going down while the number of men is going up in these two countries.

What the film tells us is nothing new. The facts about gendercide in India and China have been known and available for several years. The film does not mention the situation in Vietnam where the desire to have a son rather than a daughter is also strong.

Ultra sound machines are being used in Vietnam to fulfil the desire to produce as many sons as possible, but the case of Vietnam is not as well-known as the cases of India and China. If the people behind the film wanted to tell us something new, they could and should have included Vietnam in their film.

[For details, see for instance Marianne Brown, “Vietnam’s parents want to have a dragon son,” the Guardian, 14 February 2012.]

The notion that a boy is better than a girl is absurd. First, there is a principle: each person has the same value, whether male or female. Secondly, the long term consequences are just madness: if there are no girls around anymore, how will sons be born in the future? There must be some girls who can grow up to be women who can give birth to the next generation of boys and girls.

PART THREE

It’s a Girl got some good reviews: on IMDb it has a rating of 76 per cent, which corresponds to four stars on Amazon. I understand the positive reviews, but I cannot agree with them. Why not? Because the people behind this film are not honest about who they are and why they made this film.

The film is produced and distributed by a company called Shadowline Films, which is a shell corporation for Harvest Media Ministry, which is a producer of pro-life documentaries. In the US, pro-life is another word for anti-abortion, while those who support a woman’s right to abortion are called pro-choice.

The director of the film Evan Grae Davis used to work for Harvest Media Ministry, but this fact is not revealed on his official website where he simply states that he wants to tell stories about people “who need rescue from hunger and poverty or are victims of tyranny and exploitation.”

In a way, this film can be described as an anti-abortion film disguised as a film that supports women’s rights in India and China. Obviously, anti-abortion groups in the US love it; many pro-choice groups love it as well, without realizing who the people behind the film really are.

The fact that the film is made by people who are against abortion does not make the story any less important. But it is remarkable, to say the least, that the people behind the film have not been honest about who they are and why they made this film.

If you are against abortion, you will of course want to stop every abortion in the world, but if you cannot do this, then it is still better to stop some of them. If you can do this by saying that you want to save the unborn girls of India and China, then you can feel you have achieved something; and this is better than nothing.

The truth about Shadowline Films and the connection with Harvest Media Ministry was told by Sital Kalantry in an article which is available online: “It’s a Trick: pro-choice groups love this film; its director worked for a pro-life ministry; how did this happen?” Slate, 6 May 2013.

CONCLUSION

This is - in many ways - a good film, but as you can see, it has some flaws:

(1) The producers have a hidden agenda (although it is not so hidden anymore, because it has been exposed).

(2) The producers failed to include Vietnam in their report about countries where gendercide is going on.

I want to give this film a good rating, but I have to remove one star for each of these flaws. Therefore I think it deserves a rating of three stars.

PS. For more information about gender relations around the world, see the following films:

** Half the Sky (2012)

** Girl Rising (2013)

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