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David's life calmed down, but there were years of mixed-messages and confusion that plagued him the rest of his life. He eventually married as a male, but later committed suicide.
From a sociological perspective, the case shows how perceptions can be influenced by incomplete research. Dr. Money reported the decision as a success, despite Brenda/David's clear uncomfortability during childhood. Dr. Money's beliefs were used as a basis to 'assign' gender to hundreds of boys born with extremely small sexual organs, or a lack of a penis, and raised as girls. The relevency of the book, however, goes beyond the scientific. It is a clear account for those who are interested in transgender issues, who either know someone or are feeling uncomfortable themselves in gender related issues. The human issue centers around comfortability -- an individual's right to live in a way that is most productive for them. Certainly, it is not within a societal rubric to randomly assign a gender based on physical characteristics. Taking the example of nurture to an extreme, the "runs in the family syndrome," individuals lack responsibility for their own actions. Combining nurture with...
Also at issue is a definite change in attitude about what makes a person male, female, or combination -- or how one chooses to define oneself in order to be the truest to one's nature. That, frankly, is the key to Colapinto's book. For, it seems, regardless of external pressures, clothing, or messages, the genetic self will find a way to overcome cultural obstacles and somehow express itself.
Works Cited
Baron-Cohen, S. The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain. New York: Perseus Book Group, 2003.
Blackless, M, et.al. "Atypical Gender Development - A Review." International Journal of Transgenderism 9.2 (2003): 29-44.
Colapinto, J. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York:
Harper, 2006.
"Nature vs. Nurture: How Much Free Will Do We Really Have?" 2003. Evolution and Human
Behavior. .
Vassi, M. "Beyond Bisexuality." Journal of Bisexuality 5.2 (2005): 283-290.
Works Cited
Baron-Cohen, S. The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain. New York: Perseus Book Group, 2003.
Blackless, M, et.al. "Atypical Gender Development - A Review." International Journal of Transgenderism 9.2 (2003): 29-44.
Colapinto, J. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York:
Harper, 2006.
Behavior. <http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/socpsy-2.html>.
John Colapinto's "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl", set during the sixties, tells the sad tale of an ill-fated child who was forced to lead an atypical life marked with stress, difficulties and ordeals following an early-childhood experimentation with his sexual identity. The tale is actually a true account of the late David Reimer, a Canadian who underwent a failed corrective operation for his
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