As Nature Made Him Blog Response #1

After reading the book, As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto, I had a strong objection to Dr.Money’s theory. I find that it was morally wrong to force a boy to think like a girl just for his success in his research. I think Dr. Money is obsessed with his theories and fame that he is forcing the two twins, David (Bruce) and Brian to act in a immoral way.  Although the appearance of David as a girl is very accurate as a child, people like his teachers could distinguish that he was not a girl. Even having this questioned made, David questioned himself as a child and it basically destroyed his whole childhood.

                David’s parent, Ron and Janet, was very concerned for David when he had his bad circumcision. There were many things that ran through their mind, especially the thought of never being happy because he would never be like other boys. They think that in society, David would never fit in because of the lost of his genital and he would not be able to for example, “have a peeing contest with other boys to see who pees the farthest. “ This blinded the parents to have Bruce become an experiment of study which affect him by confusing him of his proper gender. He was lost and could not fit in as a girl or as a boy because he looks like a girl.

                The book focuses mainly on the theory of whether not changing the gender is possible after birth.  This also put a lot of gender role involved because Dr.Money would recognize David as a girl only if he submits to playing with dolls and being neat and tidy.  There are stereotypical thing that are categorized in genders in this book such as boys playing with guns and fighting, and girls being the inferior gender by avoiding fights and being neat and tidy.  Even though David had authority as a child and was much stronger compared to Brian, Dr. Money was still blinded by his research to notice that having a boy living a female role is impossible and the same vice versa. The book provided argument from Dr. Diamond (a researcher who challenged Dr. Money’s theories) with examples such as his experiment with injected hormone before birth. This was proven to be successful because he was able to produce tomboyish girls who are manlier and their features are amplified to resemble a male.

                From my intimate reading of this book, I believe that sex determines gender.  The sex that we are made to have and the amount of testosterone or estrogen that we are expose to before birth are the result that determine our sex as a male or female.  I believe that gender is just an identity and the sex we are born with will always be the same and could not be altered.  It is impossible for a man who becomes a woman to have kids, and a woman who becomes a man to have an artificial penis that could be used in sexual intercourse to be able to reproduce. These are traits that we have to be born with and they determine our gender unless we alter them.