20 top documentaries about gender that challenge our preconceptions

RTD’s gender documentaries explore the issues of gender with those pushing against traditional roles. Some believe leaving behind biological sex is liberation: these include people in Russia transitioning to a different gender, and teachers in Sweden trying to bring up children free from the concept of gender. In other RTD gender documentaries, you can meet those for whom gender-swapping is a question of economic survival, such as the Bacha Posh, girls who have to adopt a male identity to provide for their families in Afghanistan, and Americans who feel having gender reassignment surgery didn’t solve their real problems but only compounded them.

Once a girl has tasted the freedom boys have by becoming a Bacha Posh or “honorary boy”, it can be challenging to go back to the restrictions placed on women in Afghanistan.