From Dr. Money’s perspective, raising Bruce as a girl would allow him to live a “normal” life, if he were to live his life without a penis, he would be seen as an outsider and rejected from society. He also suggested to put Bruce on estrogen, but also surgically give him a cosmetic vagina. Dr. Money explained to Ron and Janet that Bruce/Brenda, would psychologically mature as a woman, and be attracted to men, as well as be able to have sexual intecourse, without a problem. According to Bruce’s parents, there was no reason “that it shouldn’t work” (50). However, they could have thought it out thoroughly, what if Brenda didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin? Would she feel as though something is wrong with her? This is where the topic of …show more content…
Money, who then scheduled sessions for Brenda, as well as her twin brother, Brian. Regardless of how Ron and Janet believed the sessions were going, Brenda felt uncomfortable and eerie, speaking with Dr. Money. The doctor would slowly gear into the topic of Brenda’s vagina, stipulating that she have an additional two surgeries, in order to fully transform her into a young woman. The surgeries being to make her urethra into the “female position” and secondly, to “excavate a full vaginak canal” (92). Brenda did not agree to this, as she envisioned herself as a male, with facial hair, friends, and a “sports car”. Evidently, Brenda was not content with herself.
Brenda began to rebel against her parents, Dr. Money, and society also. She was not pleased with having to dress up for the holidays, as wearing dresses meant acting like a girl, she felt as though she was being pressured to be someone she’s not. “I always felt like an oddball around my own family” (99). Not only was she the “oddball” in her family, but also at school with her peers. The Child Guidance Clinic would inform her parents that her behaviour was defiant, unhappy, and emotional (100). She felt incredibly troubled by her sessions with Dr. Money, that she imposed a threat to commit suicide (141).
Correspondingly, Brenda was transferred to Dr. Keith Sigmundson, who was a part of the Psychiatry Department in British Columbia. Dr. Sigmundson concluded that her fear was not an act,
One day Janet and Ron’s saving grace came along, Dr. Money. Dr. Money had a theory that children are gender neutral and can be both a boy or girl depending how they are raised. Janet and Ron got ahold of Dr. Money and asked to apart of his experiment, they were going to raise Bruce as a female. Bruce was now Brenda, and being raised as if she was never a male. Brenda went through childhood never feeling right, she wasn't like any of the other girls. Brenda rejected her gender and Dr. Money went through drastic measures to make
In the film “Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis,” the story about a Nature vs. Nurture case study, had theorized that a child nurtured to believe he was a girl with no issues of gender confusion because gender is learned. By doing so a child who is intersex or transgender can grow up to have learned their gender. The late 60s and early 70s offered little two know on how genetics or social learning that takes place that helps reinforce gender differentiation, although the beginning of the video the newest surgeries for sex change had become new it wasn't the right choice for David. Dr. money had wanted his theory of gender neutrality to prove true, Money’s based publication of this early sex change and nurturing of Baby David into a girl had
Dr. Money argued it was possible for a person to change gender successfully through surgery, socialisation and hormone replacement. Unaware Dr. Money had never attempted this before, Bruce’s parents, Ron and Janet Reimer consented. On 3rd July 1967 Bruce was surgically castrated and renamed Brenda.
The video is about a boy named Bruce Reimer who was born as a normal healthy male but that changed on August 22, 1965, when they went to get a circumcisions but it went wrong during the operation and during it, the penis was burned off during the circumcisions and it got removed accidently. After that he was sexually recast as a female after his penis was accidentally removed during a circumcision and they said it was the electrical equipment fault and none of the doctors who were doing it. Every since that day, Bruce Reimer began living as a male with no penis. After several months later, the mom finally met a doctor named Dr. Money on a television programme that give her some hope that he can turn Bruce into a daughter. After couple months later, Dr. Money told them to treat Bruce as a girl and don’t tell him that he was ever a boy or else the progress will fail. So the family calls him Brenda and treat him like a girl. This also helps Dr. Money because this will give him more practice so he can change more people’s sex.
1. Assuming that the nurture theory is valid, David as Brenda will have female behavior and believe he is a girl. From a physical point of view he will not develop secondary characteristics. Based on how hormones work by removing his testicles they denied him of his secondary characteristics. After puberty he would not
Janet Reimer gave birth to identical twins, Bruce and Brian. During a circumcision, Bruce penis was badly severed and could not be repaired surgically. The penis was severed by an electric burning device. During the Reimers search for answers on what to do about the severed penis, the family heard of Dr. John Money. Dr. John Money was the only one that seemed as if he had the answers the family wanted to hear. He convinced the family that Bruce could be raised as a girl by having reconstructive surgery and keeping his true sexual identity a secret. He told them if they kept it a secret and nurtured him as a girl, then he will begin to believe he was a female. The family believed what Dr. John Money said and agreed to the reconstructive surgery. Dr. John Money also told the family they were never to tell anyone of the surgery. Janet Reimer raised Bruce as a girl named Brenda and kept his sexuality a secret. Throughout Bruce and Brian childhood, they would meet with Dr. John Money typically once a year. During visits, Dr. John Money would continue to convince Bruce he was a female and would take sexually explicit pictures of him.
Brandon must separate his biological sex from the gender that he wants to portray to society and himself. Judith Lorber states that “[f]or the individual, gender construction starts with assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia look like at birth” (Lorber 1). This is the case for every individual. When
Nevertheless, I think that both David Remier and Dominican Republic syndrome had overwhelmed on sex, the biological part. I have to say that sex does play a big role on one's identity, as it was something in our nature, which could influence on our body changes directly. Both of the cases mentioned in here were boys wrongly raised as girls, then they figured that they were more masculine than feminine until the transition points appeared. After they knew that they were boys, most of them would not accept female gender roles any more. For David Remier, I do not think it was solely the confusing gender role frustrated him and made him suicide, I think it was the way his parents and Dr. Money handled the situation. Certainly David had some levels of gender dysphoria, as in the video, his mother said that he was more masculine and being bullied in school. However, I feel like Dr.Money kept forcing him to do something that he did not want to do. Speaking of Dr. Money, he reminded me of Dr. Kinsey, since both of them faced some unethical issues when doing research. As far as the information I got for now, I think Dr. Money was worse than Dr. Kinsey on unethical issues. He let the little David to act certain ways just for the purpose that his hypothesis was correct. In the video, everyone can tell how disengaged little David was when talking to Dr. Money, and Dr. Money seemed not care
Bradley et al., also mention a similar case in which a 2-month year old male was injured during an electrocautery circumcision and his entire penile shaft was burned and the penis eventually sloughed off. At 7-months the rest of the penis and testes were removed and the parents made the decision to reassign their son to a female and to raise him as a girl. The patient was interviewed at two separate times. The first time was at age 16 and the patient stated that she had been living a female life and had no uncertainty about being a woman. The patient mentioned that during her childhood she viewed herself as a “tomboy” but she still maintained her circle of friends to mainly girls. She wanted to have sexual intercourse with males so she arranged a vaginoplasty. She was interviewed once more at age 26 and reported that she had been attracted to women in fantasy, and enjoyed experiences with both women and men. She now
John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, two highly respected and influential people in the nature vs. nurture study state, “Evolutionary psychology is not just another
However, Dr. Money came up with a sex change theory: to raise Bruce as a female. This experiment will truly define the theory of nature vs nurture. To make sure this experiment work, nurture will have to be greater than nature. Thus, Bruce’s name changed to Brenda. Humans learn how to behave from people around them as they grow; also, children are familiarized to certain roles
The consequences of gender change can be disastrous for a human being. That’s what happened to Bruce Reimer. He was born a completely normal boy. But after a circumcision, he had his genitalia completely destroyed. His mother was desperate and didn’t know what to do until she met “John Money, who was a psychologist and sexologist well-known for his specialized research in sexual identity. Money was a professor of pediatrics and medical psychology at Johns Hopkins University, from 1951 until his death.” (Duffy, J. 1999) He was a psychologist not a surgeon. He convinced Bruce’s parents to change him into a girl through surgery. John Money, a sex researcher wanted to do an experiment and
Gender can be characterized as the state of being male or female. It is not characterized by what an individual feels they should be considered as. Throughout the movie it is shown that Bree is not comfortable with the gender she was born with. She says “nothing is going to stop me from checking into that hospital next week. I’m not going to be dragged back into Stanley's old life.” She tries so hard to separate herself from the truth of her being a male. It is shown that she wants to receive acceptance from society by listening to voice records on how to have a higher pitched voice, and trying to schedule her vaginoplasty. Social factors contributed to Gender Dysphoria include culture, race,
Nature vs. nurture has been discussed by philosophers in the past and by scientists more recently. Philosophers such as Plato argued that all knowledge was inherited from your parents and when you were told something you didn’t learn it you were just reminded of it. Aristotle however argued that all humans were born with a blank slate and built on it with influence from there environment. In the 1700’s the empiricists and the internalists took over the argument. They fought through letters explaining there point of views and denouncing the others. This leads to Pavlov coming up with the idea of behaviorism in the early 1900‘s. Behaviorism became the new wave of Psychology and influenced a lean towards the nurture side. It was not
Rawly (Richard) is a biologically ten-year-old boy that has a twin sister. He feels that he is a girl and his parents refer to his genitalia as a physical deformity and birth defect. Rawly was a product of in vitro fertilization and since an early age, he identifies as a girl and wanted all his sister pink stuff especially her clothing. He suffered all the time and at age 6 his mom let him be a girl. As a girl, she faced a lot of discrimination and bullying at school. Their parents plan is to give her a hormone replacement therapy to help her develop into puberty as a girl and to stop testosterone.