The Boy Without Penis

Although Robert was born and grew up under his given name Barbara as a girl, it’s believed my many that it is his right to have corrective surgery to help his identify, so that he could freely

In Andrew Sullivan brief essay What is a Homosexual Sullivan speaks of the relationship that society has with the idea of someone being a homosexual. He also brings up the struggles and different coping mechanisms that one will take to avoid being exiled by society. While some embrace their sexuality like Sullivan's class mate who insisted on wearing full makeup to school, others for instance would try to " out jock the jocks" (128) fight for respect for if they could only gain that then nothing else would matter. On the other hand, teens like Andrew, goals were to conceal their sexuality so as to become more morally and sociably acceptable. Thus leading boys and girls alike to live a life of "deceit", "impersonation" and "appearance" focusing

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.

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.

Being an openly gay student in high school, Brandon is subjected to torment, discrimination and marginalisation. Consistent deviance often leads to marginalisation, and gender deviance is a prime example. Brandon was beat up at school and rejected by friends. Gay individuals have long been marginalised by not receiving equal rights by law, and are habitually marginalised by the general public due to homosexuality being considered gender deviance. Taywaditep 's (2001) study suggested that due to the marginalisation gay boys received throughout their childhood and adolescence, many began to appear more gender-conforming towards adulthood to avoid marginalisation.

The documentary Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis depicts the tragic experience of a young boy and the psychologist who attempts to “treat” him after an unfortunate accident. In a time of little knowledge of sexual variation Dr. John Money proposed the theory that a boy could be raised as a girl, but after years of failed attempts this theory would be shattered. This story began when twins Bruce and Bryan went in to the hospital to have a routine circumcision operation at 7 months of age. On the 27th of April 1966 Bruce was the first of the two twins to be operated on, but the procedure would not go as planned. The boy’s parents were soon informed that their son’s penis had been fully burned off in a nontraditional attempt to burn the foreskin away from the penis. In a position of great confusion the Reimers became hopeful in light of such tragedy as they later became aware of the work of Dr. John Money, a man who was becoming a pioneer in the field of sex change surgery. In meeting with this man the Reimers were informed that their baby boy could live a normal life as a girl.

First of all David Reimer (then known as Bruce) was genetically born a boy however in 1966 his penis was destroyed by accident during a circumcision, his parents then took him to a psychologist and sexologists John Money. Money advised the parents to change the sex of their child since penis reconstruction wasn’t an option then, he was a supporter of the idea that gender wasn’t predetermined genetically and was from the influence of the environment.

He contradicted the argument that homosexual behaviour is related to genetic, hormonal or biological disorder. To abolish these views, the author mentions that ‘no school of medicine, medical journal or professional organization has ever recognized such claims (p. 2) - at least at the time he wrote the article in 1994.

Often after bullying and punishing children for their sexual orientation, it becomes the only thing others can see. It’s important to remember that masculine or feminine men can be gay or straight. Masculine or feminine females can be lesbian or straight. Does it really matter that their sexual orientation is different from the norm? Even today, gender stereotypes are forbidding men and women alike from participating in everything they want.

The doctors essential pick what gender they want the child to be based on what they observe the child's genitals to be. As discussed in the book, male children with unusually small penises have had operations

2.)In the case of Rudy Alaniz like many others males, had a very masculine career serving in the army. Post the Gulf war Rudy had discovered he were intersex during an MRI.The doctor had notified Rudy that he had the sexual reproductive orangs of a female. All his life he had been tricked to believed that he was just a male, to come to find out something totally different. This had left Rudy with more question than he had answers to. He then had come to a conclusion he was sexually altered at birth. Rudy had begun to seek information to find out about his medical history, but had failed to do so.Rudy parents refused to speak on the matter, and doctors had kept his medical records hidden from him. Doctors had even stated the fact that Rudy suffered

The patient reported that he had never felt comfortable in his own skin and was exclusively attracted to females (Bradley, S.J., Oliver, G. D., Chernick, A. B,, & Zucker, K. J., 1998). This case study displays that genetic factors have a higher effect on gender identity than modeling or parental rearing. Despite the social and environmental factors rearing her to be a girl he always showed his masculinity. This study is interesting and should also be included in transsexual studies.

One book or story that has helped me understand issues in our society today, would be the book I’ve read multiple times over the past two years which would be “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas”. This book has helped me learn about the holocaust and how truly brutal it was. The boy lived in a concentration camp and was held captive by the Nazi’s (Germans). He was forced to live there with only a number to go off of. One day he will be tricked to think he is taking his first ever shower again but in reality he will be shoved into a gas chamber and burned to ashes.

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.

Dewey Skeates had just seen a dead boy. The image had been running through his mind all day. Blood on his chest and blood on his hands and blood in his mouth. It didn’t make any sense. Death didn’t exist. It just wasn’t something that was physically possible until someone reached at least one hundred and fifty years of age or so. The government had issued a statement during the genetic renaissance that said that the whole population had had their genetic codes altered to allow for enzymes to quickly fix anything that was broken. Dewey being an incredibly smart boy for his eleven years, a genius one might even call him, was left stumped by the image that was replaying over and over in his head. He saw no way for death to be possible. His older sister, Ariata, had suggested that maybe some people could die but no one knew when they did. He had wholeheartedly rejected that theory, but it left his mind whirring with possibilities. Oh the endless possibilities, he thought to himself.