Hungry Beast: March 17

Next week’s Hungry Beast meets Zoe and Natalie, two Australians born as Intersex -with both male and female physical attributes.

Last year, South African runner Caster Semenya made world headlines following questions as to whether she was a man or a woman.

Zoe Brain, a 51 year old aerospace engineer, was born male but at the age of 47 her body spontaneously changed to female over the course of three months. “My child got a front row seat to something that has probably only happened to less than 100 people on the planet in this generation. His daddy performed a really, really good magic trick. He turned into a girl before his very eyes,” says Zoe.

Natalie Kirk, a 23 year old graphic designer, was born with female anatomy except for underdeveloped ovaries. This means she has never gone through puberty. But she doesn’t feel entirely female. “What my body is, is what I am. Leaning towards female but kind of in the middle. For some people it’s just really hard to imagine anything but male and female, it’s just that some people aren’t either,” she says.

Intersex is something we almost never hear about, but is surprisingly common – as often as 1 in 100 people. Despite this, the overwhelming majority of intersex people live in secrecy. Zoe and Natalie are two of a very small handful who are willing to speak publicly about their experiences.

Until now, neither Natalie nor Zoe have ever appeared on television before. They have never met. They live only a few hours’ drive from each other. Hungry Beast follows Zoe and Natalie as they meet for the first time, and gains a rare window into their lives.

In this episode, Hungry Beast also looks at how corporations are using smell in order to influence us to buy their products.

It airs at 9pm Wednesday on ABC1.