John Colapinto's analysis of David Reimer's gender identity crisis

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 urinary problem when he was eight months of age, ending in his penis being destroyed. This account reflects ideas and thoughts linked to sexual and gender identity, psychology, masculinity, ego and societal acceptance (BookReview, 2011).

Introduction

This narrative is introduced through an interview of its key character, David Reimer, by its author, John Colapinto; when the latter starts posing tough questions, readers see the scene transitioning into a succession of events experienced by the former\'s mom and dad. Readers get a glimpse of how the couple met, fell in love, and ended up facing the problems that form the essence of this book (York, 2015).

\"My parents feel very guilty, as if it were their fault,\" David explained to me during my first visit to Winnipeg. \"But it wasn\'t like that. They did what they did out of kindness, love and desperation. When you\'re desperate, you don\'t necessarily do all the right things\" (Colapinto, 2001, Preface pg. XVII).

The above paragraph transitions to Part 1 of the book, which commences with the line: \"The Irony was that Ron and Janet Reimer\'s life together had begun with such special promise.\" (Pg. 3)

Rising Action

The action increases after Dr. Huot performs a messed-up surgery on the Reimers\' infant son, David: \"Dr. Huot said that Bruce\'s penis had been burned\" (Pg. 14). The outcome of the operation is David going through a nightmare of a life during his early and late childhood years, being forced to grow up as a girl. Psychiatrist Mary McKenty\'s introduction into the Reimers\' life is what brings this rising action to a stop:\"It was at this critical stage in David\'s adolescence that Keith Sigmundson finally succeeded in placing her in the care of a new psychiatrist. A particularly gifted and empathetic one named Dr. Mary McKenty.\" (Pg. 150)

Climax

This tale\'s climax is perhaps its smallest chapter; however, concurrently, it is also the narrative\'s most salient section. It occurs during the course of Brenda\'s (i.e., David when he thought he was a girl) visits with Dr. McKenty. These therapeutic sessions gradually heal David\'s mind following his harrowing experiences of social rejection and mental abuse. All through the course of these sessions, he contemplates taking his own life on several occasions. However, Dr. McKenty\'s sessions which offer psychological healing and develop his self-confidence prevent him from taking such a drastic step. Following the entire accrual of familial tension, Janet and Ron Reimer finally reveal Brenda\'s real identity to the other kids. At this point, Brenda (i.e., David) comes to know she was, in fact, born a boy. This leads to David\'s decision to spend the rest of his life as a male (York, 2015).

\"He told me I was born a boy,\" (Pg. 180)

The climactic portion culminates with David\'s declaration, \"I\'ve changed over, but mainly by name. The rest was all cosmetic. I just had repaired what was damaged. That\'s all.\" (Pg. 216)

Conflicts

This story is rife with external as well as internal conflicts. They involve several discussions and choices that impacted fourteen years of David\'s life. One example of the former kind of conflict is Brenda\'s warding off of Dr. Money\'s inquiries into the way she led life and whether she possessed any feminine qualities. An instance depicting internal conflict would be her continuous struggle as she disliked things girls typically liked and was drawn to the activities boys typically did (York, 2015).

External

\"Money, clearly noting this transparent attempt to tell him what he wanted to hear,\" (Pg. 82).

Internal

\"Brenda\'s subconcious conviction that she was a boy emerged\" (Pg. 83).

It is hard to see the story\'s irony before completely reading it. Money appears to be the villain on certain occasions. Colapinto\'s evidence with regard to Money and the many papers penned by him in his thirties reveal that individuals whose genital organs are destroyed do lead happy lives as members of the gender of their own choosing. Several reports of his concur with the above theory. But the irony here is that we expect Money to follow that train of thought, developing on those ideas, while in truth, he acts to the contrary. He attempts to disprove his older claims. A second ironical instance was, after the failure of David\'s case, one would think Money reverted to his original theory. However, he still insists on experimenting with babies (York, 2015).

\"Likewise, a twenty year old born with a small, hypospadic penis that required him to sit to urinate and that went uncorrected until age nineteen; this patient \'was almost a model of what the average citizen believes a healthy, well-adjusted American youth should be,\'\" (Pg. 235)

\"The psychologist who consulted on Baby Doe\'s case-five years after David announced his decision to live as a male- was Dr. John Money\"(Pg. 276).

The story reflects predictions of Brenda knowing inevitably and intrinsically that she was not a girl. This knowledge led her to typically favor masculine toys over dolls and other feminine toys. The forewarning here is, if a person feels masculine and is inclined to perform masculine activities, what is the difference between that person and other boys? In this instance, Brenda was aware that something definitelywasn\'t right (York, 2015).

\"\'What can you do with a doll?\' David says today, his voice charged with remembered frustration. \"You look at it. You dress it. You undress it. Comb its hair. It\'s boring! With a car, you can drive it somewhere, go places, I wanted cars.\'\" (Pg. 58)

David\'s story has been presented in the form of an interview. Thus, it is, in a way, a flashback. Or better still, though David was unaware of some bits of information, the book is more of a chronological timeline highlighting the events which transpired in his distressing life. One of his moments of flashback, depicted towards the narrative\'s ending, is when he\'s watching TV with Jane, his wife and recollects a few things Money had him and Brian do in their childhood. It was not only David who had to call to mind past memories. His doctors, reporters and childhood friends were also asked to recollect the parts of their lives linked to Brenda\'s (York, 2015). However, the whole story is not only about Brenda, as Janet and Ron Reimer also recalled their conversation with Money where Money claimed: \"\'I don\'t know why people say making love; it\'s making sex\'\" (Pg. 254). To this, Janet replied: \"\'What I have with Ron is love. We make love\'\" (Pg. 254).

\"But the children did not enjoy these enforced activities-particularly those involving \'play at thrusting movements and copulation,\' which Brian recalls that Dr. Money first introduced when the twins were six years old\" (Pg. 86).

By that time Sigmundson says, \'there were clear doubts in my mind that this [sex reassignment] ever should have happened\'\" (Pg. 169).

\"Recalling how David had once dodged a confrontation with Heather at the go-cart track fifteen years earlier, I wondered how he would greet this news\" (Pg. 266)

\"He and Heather had discussed all aspects of his childhood, comparing notes on their shared memories, reexamining their old friendship in the light of what neither had known at the time\" (Pg. 266).

All through the course of the tale, Money acts as a stubborn scientist and egoist who believes gender identity is a social, and not natural, construct and constantly strives towards proving that one can successfully recreate and alter gender. The client and his parents fall prey to the doctor\'s strange unverified theories believed, by none but him, to hold truth. Janet and Ron are to be empathized with. They fell into the wrong hands and in their initial state of shock and distress, the solution offered by the well-known Money with his honorary credentials appeared ideal to them. After all, they were only doing what was recommended by medical professionals. Only after his experiment with David failed did the public criticize his theory (BookReview, 2011).

As Nature Made Him, which commences with the butchery of an infant boy, his transformation into a girl, and his reorientation as a boy, demonstrates that one can\'t tamper with the naturally established order of individuals, personalities and genders. Happiness was linked to societal acceptance and belongingness, related, eventually, to sticking to the way he was created. It is sad and ironic that David, owing to the mistakes committed during his babyhood, was never able to enjoy the peace and happiness he coveted and deserved. He ultimately killed himself, despite leading a normal adulthood with a wife and kids. This demonstrates the wrongness of attempting to fight nature and the devastating consequences of such an attempt (BookReview, 2011).