It's a Girl! (2012)

It’s a Girl!: Directed by Evan Grae Davis. Every year in India and China, millions of babies are killed, neglected or abandoned simply because they are girls.

“This documentary is difficult to review, since while it is an important topic, it is presented in a incredibly oversimplified format, all made worse by the addition of awful drawings to u0026#39;tellu0026#39; the story (as if one needed these graphic representations), u0026#39;expertsu0026#39; from various human rights organizations speechifying, and yet, they do NOT add anything new, nor do they suggest real solutions. Just because some man states that u0026quot;women should be worth as much as a manu0026quot;, that doesnu0026#39;t actually change anything.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI laughed out loud when one of the u0026#39;expertsu0026#39; interviewed (a woman) seemed outraged that women were not treated as equal in u0026quot;those societiesu0026quot;, which of course makes me ask, just where on this planet women are treated and seen as equal? (It wonu0026#39;t be more than a handful of places, so this morally superior stance just rubbed me the wrong way. I have lived in Germany and the US and can report first-hand that they are a far cry from gender equality there.)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAbout the only thing I realized from this film was that the women in India that aborted female fetuses or killed their infant girls shortly after birth were really doing their never- or new-born daughters a kindness; having to live and grow up in such a hateful society where all you are worth is your dowry and your uterusu0026#39; ability to produce a male baby is hell. I ended up coming closer to condoning their u0026#39;solutionu0026#39; than what feels morally right and defensible. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe situation in China seemed even more absurd, if the film reported the truth, with families unwilling to have girls, but willing to kidnap them so their son can have a wife. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat complicates the issue is that I did not hear the words u0026#39;overpopulationu0026#39; at all. Chinau0026#39;s u0026quot;one-childu0026quot; policy did not come out of a vacuum, nor was it instated out of spite; it was an attempt to control a runaway overpopulation crisis. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe tone of the film – this morally superior we should treat everyone as equally valuable humans just because – without suggesting real solutions to the underlying (and overwhelming) problems of poverty, starvation/food shortages, overpopulation, lack of education, pollution, and etc., and without even questioning whether oneu0026#39;s cultural background and preferences should be imposed on others made me dislike the documentary and question the tone/intent.”