Furthermore, the photos around the house exemplify that Alex's gender performance would be based on both her gender and her identification as a woman. This audience expectation holds true for less than about a third of the film when the film reveals that they had to move to the coast due to an altercation Alex had with a boy regarding Alex's body, an event never seen during the film. The presence of the rib is important because they can protect Alex from society, a protection necessary due to Alex's medical condition of having both male and female reproductive organs, known as "Klinefelter syndrome (KS), caused by XXY karyotype" (Xuqi, Chen 2). After this case, the presence of both ovarian and testicular tissue created a discourse between her parents, Karken and Suli, to choose her gender construction, which ultimately led to the choice to raise her as a female. From this revelation, Butler's gender theory and his difference between the universal and the performance are crucial to finding Alex's true gender. For example, even if his sex is female, his gender does not reflect the same identification due to a premeditated performance force; Alex and this premeditated performance, which leads to her not being in control of the situation, as quoted by Margaret Frohlich: "as a child, Alex's ability to determine how to treat her body is subject to the power of adults, primarily her parents" (161) . This adapted gender or forced gender identification for Alex, by her parents, began to cast doubt and ambiguity towards the true gender identification of herself, reflecting a scene early in the film: “Liminality is described as a of Alex's innate characteristics. In the first scene after the opening credits, Alex, sitting on the porch of the family home, occupies a liminal position