“As nature made him: The boy who was raised as a girl” was written by John Colapinto in 2001. The book is a gripping tale of the traumatic consequences of a medical disaster in 1967, following an infant boy; one of an identical twin’s set who went through a failed circumcision. On August 22, 1965, a young housewife named Janet Remer residing within Winnipeg, Manitoba, delivered identical twins and named her two bouncing sons Bruce and Brian. At the age of seven months, the boys developed phimosis: excruciating urination owing to obstruction of the opening of the penis. Consequently, the physician suggested that the children be circumcised. Bruce’s operation went terribly erroneous. In some way it is still not apparent precisely how such a thing may possibly take place.
Bruce’s family is compelled to raise him as a girl; encouraged by Dr.John Money, a famous medical psychologist and a specialist in sexual reassignment and sex identity field. He guaranteed them that Bruce might turn out to be a content and satisfied lady, whilst cautioning them that Bruce would be unhappy as a grown-up male with no penis. The parents were impressed and gave their approval. Bruce went through surgical castration on July 3, 1967.Bruce was surgically changed to live like a girl.
They rename him Brenda and spent the ensuing 14 years striving to change him into a girl. Dr. Money’s report was enormously powerful, and fairly justifiably so. If a lad could be changed into a young woman simply by having his penis done away with, putting on a dress, and allowing his hair to develop, in that case sexual identity as well as the disparities among the sexes ought to be mainly cultural in origin. Dr. Money confirmed this ruling in his 1977 text. He wrapped it up that Bruce’s sex relocation as a young woman was “convincing evidence that the gender identity gate is open at birth for a normal child . . . and that it stays open at least for something over a year after birth.” However, all was not like it appeared.
Dr. Milton Diamond had been concerned about the case ever since Dr. Money had initially reported it in 1972. Though, his wishes for additional information concerning the “girl’s” teenage years had gone unreciprocated. In 1992, he was successful in tracking down one of the physicians concerned in Brenda/Bruce’s case: Dr. Keith Sigmund son, a child psychiatrist within Winnipeg who had been caring for “Brenda.” He established out that Dr. Money had been deforming the truth of the case and the reality went round to be almost the contrary of what Dr. Money had accounted. Far from an unforced alteration from male to female, Brenda/Bruce had battled the task to the feminine sex even though “Brenda” had not been told the reality of “her” sexual identity.
Like a little baby, “she” tore off the lacey dresses made by her mother. Brenda was adamant on undulating inside the dirt amid the other young men. She stamped on the dolls that relatives offered as gifts. Feminine hormone inoculations did nothing to alter “Brenda’s” boyish habits. “When I say there was nothing feminine about Brenda,” brother Brian Reimer later recalled, “I mean there was nothing feminine.”
On March 14, 1980, at what time “Brenda” was 15 years of age, her parents finally let their teenager know the truth. Brenda’s mounting sexual interest in young women abruptly became logical; everything became sensible. Immediately, “Brenda” was adamant on reassuming an identity of a male. He did so with extraordinary simplicity, in spite of not having a testicle and a penis. He selected the name David, given that he believed that his years so far had turned out to be a David-and-Goliath fight. “Brenda” is at the present David Reimer, happily wedded and the father of three adopted children. David is gifted at vehicle mechanics and likes watching broadcasted games.
The author of the book is not a clinician or a sexuality investigator and does not assert to be. The truth that the author is a reporter, rather than a scientific researcher might prompt debate concerning the possible strengths and limitations of his unique viewpoint on the case. For example, apprentices may propose that since Colapinto does not have a scientific or intellectual background in the sexuality field, he might have overlooked significant fine distinctions of the case that would not have been ignored by a sexologist. On the other hand, since the author’s background is not within the field of sexology, it might be that Colapinto was capable to account on the case more impartially, given that he would be not as much of probable to be personally linked with any particular example that may possibly prejudice the way he approaches the case.
Decisive assessment of whichever research, whether journalistic or technical, entails an assessment of the techniques employed to collect information. In essence, “as nature made him” can be said to be a case study. The author incorporates information from lots of varied sources that are thought believable. In this regard, the text is imposing. One of the most notable features of the text is the trustworthiness and excellence of the information presented by Colopinto on the case.
The author takes huge pains to guarantee readers that “As Nature Made Him” is certainly a nonfiction work, in its entirety. In Colapinto’s messages preceding the initial episode, he notes down that “[n]o dialogue or scenes have been invented for the purposes of `narrative flow,’ `atmosphere,’ or any other quasi-novelistic purpose” (p. ix) He further affirms that every conversation that is presented is taken word for word from transcriptions of taped psychological dialogues, from printed messages of psychotherapy/interrogation sessions, as well as from declarations offered by relatives, doctors, acquaintances and teachers who were spectators to particular occurrences during Reimer’s life.
Capilanto’s text brings to life, in an extremely appealing way, a range of content areas characteristically covered within gender/sexuality lessons, such as the importance of gender identity to infant and teenager social development, the consequences of hormones on secondary sexual distinctiveness development all through puberty, prenatal sexual demarcation, sexual multiplicity and intersexuality, as well as the sociocultural implications of sex and gender. The text’s potential utilization as a medium to arouse critical thinking and assessment of sexuality information as well as investigation is most exceptional.
John Colapinto has accomplished such a wonderful work in sharing David Reamer’s brave, convincing as well as heartbreaking tale. He presents the facts with no condemnation, (even in instances where they were somewhat justified) for the psychological/ medical society involved in David’s existence. The facts are consistently presented with the topmost admiration to the very tough option these parents had to take and subsequently live with.
