As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl

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As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 2,894 ratings · 409 reviews

In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine -- and a total failure. "As Nature Made Him" tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a mal...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published February 20th 2001 by Harper Perennial (first published January 13th 2000)

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Jan 05, 2012 Eric_W rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, current-affairs

This book will make you very angry; that a child could be so maltreated by an "expert," who clearly was in need of help himself, but who was so intent on proving a theory that he disregarded substantial evidence to the contrary. You'll be angry, too, with other professionals who were reluctant to challenge the "great" man even when their own evidence pointed in an opposite direction. But you'll be astonished and satisfied by the incredible fortitude of a young child who realized that something w...more This book will make you very angry; that a child could be so maltreated by an "expert," who clearly was in need of help himself, but who was so intent on proving a theory that he disregarded substantial evidence to the contrary. You'll be angry, too, with other professionals who were reluctant to challenge the "great" man even when their own evidence pointed in an opposite direction. But you'll be astonished and satisfied by the incredible fortitude of a young child who realized that something was wrong and in his own way stood up to the extraordinary pressure that was put on him.

David Reimer was the victim of numerous mistakes. The first was a botched circumcision that essentially fried his penis. Then he became subject to the attempts of a famous sex researcher to verify his theories about the nature of gender development. The result was a lot of pain for David and his family.

Colapinto got permission from the family to write this book, and all conversations, everything in quotes, is from transcripts or documents. All the scarier.

It all began when David (then called Bruce) and his identical twin brother Brian were diagnosed with a condition called phimosis that circumcision normally repaired. Bruce was operated on first, but a serious mistake in the voltage levels of the electrical surgical device was made and his genitalia burned beyond salvage. The medical staff suggested that Bruce be raised as a girl. This was at a time when feminist theory, supported by some psychologists, proposed that gender identity had nothing to do with biology: it was all a social construct. Eventually, the parents were referred to Dr. Money at Johns Hopkins University. Money was a world-renowned sex researcher who apparently suffered from a multitude of sex hang-ups himself. Money had staked his reputation on the belief that sexual identity was socially determined, and he had worked with numerous transsexuals. When Bruce's parents showed up with an identical twin who had no male genitalia, it was an obvious answer to his prayers, for now he could develop data from a twin study to validate Money's theories. Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins had performed numerous sex reassignment surgeries on hermaphrodite children, but no such operation had ever been attempted on a child born with normal genitalia and nervous system, a distinction that the parents, Ron and Janet, never grasped until years later. Money's conviction was the procedure would be successful; "I see no reason why it shouldn't work," he told them. The decision had to be made early, because, according to his theory, there was a gender identity gate at which point the child was locked into a male or female identity. Bruce became Brenda and was raised as a girl. There were problems from the start, but Money insisted he was right and continued to promote the case as an example of the correctness of his theory of psycho sexual neutrality at birth.

In the meantime, at the University of Kansas, a young researcher was studying the role of hormones on behavior, and in a paper published in the late fifties, he marshaled considerable evidence from biology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, and endocrinology to argue that gender identity is hardwired into the brain virtually from conception. Hermaphrodites had an inborn neurological capability to go both ways, a capability that genetically normal children would not share.

The researcher, Milton Diamond, was to become a thorn in Money's side as he marshaled considerable evidence of the role of prenatal hormones in determining gender identity. Money�s accusation that Diamond's alliance with unscrupulous media caused the cessation of what would have been the culmination and piece de resistance of his life's work, the twin study, finally pushed Diamond to a public response in the form of a paper. Money's work was still being used to support the behaviorist proponents in the psychological community, who were still trying to "convert" and "change" adult homosexuals back to a heterosexual orientation. In the meantime, Money had been uncharacteristically silent what was occurring with the twins. Diamond managed to track down the psychiatrist,Keith Sigmundson, who had been working with Brenda/David in the intervening years. Having seen firsthand the implementation of Money's theories, Sigmundson, after reading Diamond's papers and convincing himself of Diamond's research integrity, agreed that something needed to be documented publicly as to the outcome of the case.

By this time, Brenda had become David, reverting to male, and had married. His parents, after years of therapy for the whole family, had finally broken with Money, and told Brenda of the genital removal. David had married and wanted to put everything behind him, but finally agreed to meet with Diamond. Realizing after their conversations that his case was being used as evidence to support the implementation of Money's theories in other cases, he decided he had to speak out. The resulting paper warned physicians of the dangers of surgical sexual reassignment, especially for intersexual newborns, since "physicians have no way of predicting in which direction the infant's gender identity has differentiated." Assigning a sex, i.e. name, hair length, and clothing, was one thing, but irreversible surgical intervention had to be avoided until the child was old enough to determine and articulate. "To rear the child in a consistent gender, but keep away the knife," was the caveat expressed by as Diamond to Colapinto.

One of the more interesting side issues I think the book raises is the nature of authority, i.e. what constitutes being an expert. Certainly, being right, correct, and knowledgeable appears not to be criteria.

Note 2011. David Reimer committed suicide in 2004.(less)

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Synesthesia It's usually done without anesthesia... And it's totally not needed. The whole rest of the world has whole penises. Even some Jews are against it. Hop...more
Jan 05, 2012 06:38pm

Traveller Ok, on the whole penis thing: I'm not really qualified to comment as the owner of one, but as a straight female, I guess I can at least comment that I...more Ok, on the whole penis thing: I'm not really qualified to comment as the owner of one, but as a straight female, I guess I can at least comment that I by far prefer the uncircumcised version. :) (And btw, I don't have a clue why people think a circumcised one is more attractive visually - heck, to me the opposite - maybe it's just what you're used to that looks best to you?)

I've heard men discuss this issue before, and some circumcised men want their foreskins back, others don't care, and other are fine with being circumcised. ..but I have NEVER heard of a male who wasn't circumcised wanting to actually have it circumcised for anything other than religious reasons.

About the gender identity thing; well, this just goes to show that the 'role' assigned to females would drive anybody nuts, not just males, it drives females round the bend as well. No wonder this poor guy couldn't take it. Females who have to "play" the traditional 'feminine' passive role of being a nobody are prone to get depressed, and all through the ages, their "depression" or "hysteria" was attributed to the fact that they were females per se.

However, has anybody ever thought of the possibility that it might the ROLE they are required to play that causes this?

I can quote from own experience: my father secretly wanted a boy which caused him to treat me 'equal' as if I was a boy, (I bonded quite strongly with him at an early age - he took me everywhere with him, (and interestingly enough, my maternal grandfather did a similar thing) and I think I partly shaped my identity with my father and grandfather as rolemodels) and then my mother was secretly afraid I'd turned out too masculine and she tried to push me back to the feminine side, and in the process I got a little muddled, I think. (But in the end I turned out with a "straight" orientation, interestingly, and quite feminine as far as dress and grooming is concerned)
..but I think I can suffice to say that having access to both worlds is the best thing to have, and if the roles the genders are required to play, weren't so restricted, perhaps people will start caring rather less which gender they were born with. ..and as much as I see myself having a lot of so-called "masculine" tastes and abilities in addition to so-called 'feminine' ones, I actually don't mind being a female (except for the darn hormones and the nonsense with having a uterus and all the probs around that and.... ok, a lot of stuff regarding the female physique), but as long as I'm not restricted in what I'm "allowed" to do or not such as the restrictions on females that go with many religions and the idea that females need to be submissive, I guess I can put up with that..

On the other hand, I think that if I was put into a male body, once I got used to the strangeness of it, I could quite easily adapt to that... I'm assuming the hormones would "take me there" as far as switching orientation the other side sexually, is concerned.

I can't help wondering if David would have had similar problems had he actually been born genetically a female and somehow had a penis constructed for him, and he got to play out life as a male? I betcha no. So maybe, just maybe, Money isn't as much to blame as society is.(less)
updated May 13, 2012 10:37am

Dec 19, 2007 Tracey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: libraryread, pop-sociology

A recommendation from hells_librarian, I checked this book out and read it last Sunday afternoon. I didn't take as many notes as I might have normally, as the story just sucked me in.

A gripping story of Bruce, an infant boy who, after a botched circumcision, was surgically altered and raised as a girl, upon the recommendation of an expert in gender identity & sexual reassignment. This expert, Dr. John Money, had been looking for proof that nurture was more important than nature in gender id...more A recommendation from hells_librarian, I checked this book out and read it last Sunday afternoon. I didn't take as many notes as I might have normally, as the story just sucked me in.

A gripping story of Bruce, an infant boy who, after a botched circumcision, was surgically altered and raised as a girl, upon the recommendation of an expert in gender identity & sexual reassignment. This expert, Dr. John Money, had been looking for proof that nurture was more important than nature in gender identity; as this boy had an identical twin brother, it seemed the perfect situation: same genes, same parents, same upbringing, except for one being a boy and one a girl.

However, the child (renamed Brenda) never quite seemed to fit into the model of girlhood, try as she would. The years of therapy, both with Dr. Money and other psychiatrists, only confused her further, as she was never told exactly what had happened. Her family was as supportive as they could be in the circumstances, trying out different schools and even moving halfway across the country in an attempt to give Brenda a new start. While I felt the parents made the wrong decision, I could understand their reasoning and empathize with them.

The bizarre details of the therapy sessions disturbed me at least as much as the graphic details of the surgeries; Dr. Money not only showed Brenda (and occasionally her brother, Brian) pornographic material (not just drawings & photos of nudes, but actual porn), he also asked very sexually explicit questions at what I thought was much too early of a time in her life. As puberty arrived, Brenda's nature rebelled against the regimen of hormones; and once she learned the whole story, she decided to become male again, adopting the name David. He is now in his late twenties, relatively well-adjusted, and married to a woman whose 3 children satisfy his longing to be a father.

This story is nearly as much about Dr. John Money as it is about Bruce/Brenda/David: exposing his prejudices (bordering on perversions, IMHO*) in the realm of sexual study. He remained convinced that Brenda would turn out just fine; his insistence at completing the surgical alteration in her early teens nearly drove her to suicide; I got the impression he was treating this human being as a lab animal.

Dr. Milton Diamond, another sex researcher, also found himself questioning this celebrated "twin study" and his opposition fueled a 30-year feud between the men. Oddly enough, the original (skewed) results of this study were considered proof to feminists that there are no meaningful differences between men and women.

Colapinto ends the book with a more general study of gender reassignment and intersexed individuals. As with any minority, there are activist individuals speaking out against cases such as the one in this book, and he presents their viewpoint in a fair manner. Treatment options are slowly moving away from infant surgical reconstruction to raising the child in a specific gender, but leaving the surgery decisions to the individual, once he/she is old enough to understand and determine his/her gender identity. While the family will face difficulties with this course of action, it seems to me that less permanent damage is done to the child this way.

Recommended to anyone interested in gender identity or in biographies of people who successfully face incredible challenges.

------
* My (rather skimpy) notes refer to him at one point as "a fucking nutcase". However, my personal history may be coloring my impressions a bit.
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Jan 02, 2009 bookczuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-autobiography-or-memoir, bookcrossing, good-but-made-me-sad, taught-me-something

What an account! I am very thankful to say this is not the state of pediatric urology today. I am a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Urology SEction, and remember very clearly when Milton Diamond spoke in San Francisco at the AAP conference. Out in the streets, we were being picketed by a group called "HErmaphrodites with an Attitude". What the group failed to realize is that the majority of the pediatric urologists were genuinely trying to understand what was best for the patient.

I...more What an account! I am very thankful to say this is not the state of pediatric urology today. I am a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Urology SEction, and remember very clearly when Milton Diamond spoke in San Francisco at the AAP conference. Out in the streets, we were being picketed by a group called "HErmaphrodites with an Attitude". What the group failed to realize is that the majority of the pediatric urologists were genuinely trying to understand what was best for the patient.

In my own experience, I can say that gender reassignment is not the norm. When a child is born with ambiguos genitalia, there is a concerted effort to find out what nature actually intended- where the genes are and what "equipment" is there. "Reassignment" is not the norm, rather careful consideration of "assignment". What also has to be looked at is the natural cycles of hormone surges that occur as early as a few weeks or months, that could impact a child. There is an AAP group. or at least was, before I had to leave practice because of medical disability, looking at issues of intersex and helping to clarify the best possible standards of care. Fascinating subject.

As an aside, when I was about 17 or 18, there was this girl I knew who insisted something had been "done to her" to make her a woman. That she was really both male and female, despite the female genitalia she said she had. She was...interested...shall we say, in a relationship with me, but it was not my cup of tea. She kept insisting she was both male and female, so that I shouldn't be uptight, but I still declined. That was in the late 70's. At this AAP lecture by Diamond in the 90's he showed slides of patients. There she was, up on the screen. I blurted out "holy S***! That's ______!" Turns out, she was a true hermaphrodite, who had the external appearance of a female. So she was right- there was a guy inside the female's body! She'd had an operation as a kid to "normalize" her exterior parts. Not that I would know by personal experience, but how weird is it that I should find that out after all those years????
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Nov 05, 2008 Suki rated it 4 of 5 stars

this book disgust me since the very beginning. i heard about this book in the beginning of the year when everyone started to read it. i thought it was interesting so i started to read it as well. this book is addicting and i finished the book in 5 days but it is really nasty. i dont think this book is for everyone. this book is about a little boy who needed surgery because he couldnt pee i believe but unfortunately the doctors made a huge mistake and the infants penis got burnt so he doesnt hav...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Skyla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-story, fucked-up-science, canadian-author

This is based on the true story of David (Bruce/Brenda) Reimer, please see here for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Re...

The fact that the experiments on this poor boy lead him to become suicidal and depressed and to eventually take his own life because someone tried to force him to be a different gender is heartbreaking and really makes you think more about how transgender youth must feel liek being born into the wrong body.

I'm also incredibly upset that feminists agreed with D...more

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Dec 21, 2008 di rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, north-american

This was such an interesting exploration of gender issues. How imperfect science is, & how sometimes the agendas of scientists can destroy people's lives. David's comments at the end about what makes a man and what a father is are tremendous. His reactions to John Money's position about sex and gender are also fascinating. I don't think I could have liked this book any better. It had me hooked from page one. I got into an interesting discussion with Millie about the church, priesthood, and t...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Susanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the tragic true account of a little boy, who after a botched circumcision that destroyed his penis, was taken to Johns Hopkins for help. His poor and uneducated parents were convinced by a research scientist, one who was considered the expert in his field, to castrate the child and to raise him as a girl. This man's completely untested theory was that gender is malleable in babies and that "nurture beats nature". This man was not a doctor, had done no preliminary research on animals, and...more This is the tragic true account of a little boy, who after a botched circumcision that destroyed his penis, was taken to Johns Hopkins for help. His poor and uneducated parents were convinced by a research scientist, one who was considered the expert in his field, to castrate the child and to raise him as a girl. This man's completely untested theory was that gender is malleable in babies and that "nurture beats nature". This man was not a doctor, had done no preliminary research on animals, and based his theory on his success with treating hermaphrodites and adult transexuals.

The little boy, despite the attempts by his parents to convince him otherwise, had a clear sense from the time he was small that he was a boy. He, his twin, and the parents were destroyed by the situation. They experienced terrible guilt, shame, and depression. The boy was ostracized by his peers, and fought tooth and nail against the inappropriate gender assignment. Dr. Money, at every turn, refused to admit the experiment was failure, and insisted on having the family continue the charade. When the boy was a teen, his family finally told him the truth, and allowed him to live as a boy.

The thing that probably struck me most about this book was the stunning hubris of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and their complete disregard for the well-being of the patient in favor of an interesting research topic. This case was made more enticing to Hopkins, because the child was an identical twin, and therefore a perfect experiment. It appears the hospital, with little or no formal oversight or review, allowed Dr. Money to mutilate and experiment on a human child. Their actions, and those of Dr. Money, were criminal in my mind, and I am shocked that even after all this time, after so much evidence has come to light, there have been no sanctions or repercussions.

The other thing that struck me was the terrible anguish any person and family must feel when a child is born "in the wrong body" naturally, and is forced to live as a gender they don't feel they really are. I am glad that we as a society have begun to accept such people.

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Sep 11, 2007 Bridget rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone in the medical or mental health fields

I highly recommend this book to all my friends in the field of psychology. I first heard about this case when I was an undergraduate in psychology. The subjects were in adolescence at the time, and my professor told us that the prepubertal adjustment of the altered child was healthy but that out of respect for the child's privacy nothing was being published about the case during the period of adolescence. The study was cited in my textbook as Money & Erhardt. Though I couldn't remember the y...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Joni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: parenting

I didn't find this book to be riveting in the writing style - it can be rather dry and there are parts that drag on a bit. But it is a fascinating true story about identical twin boys who, because of a circumcision gone horribly wrong, are raised as brother and sister.

The ego of Dr. John Money is infuriating and it is frustrating just how he managed to get all these cases of sex reassignment. I find it baffling that all these parents would let their children have these yearly therapy sessions wi...more I didn't find this book to be riveting in the writing style - it can be rather dry and there are parts that drag on a bit. But it is a fascinating true story about identical twin boys who, because of a circumcision gone horribly wrong, are raised as brother and sister.

The ego of Dr. John Money is infuriating and it is frustrating just how he managed to get all these cases of sex reassignment. I find it baffling that all these parents would let their children have these yearly therapy sessions with this nut without oversight, especially when the children were all vocal about not wanting to go and would get more nervous about meeting with the man as they grew older. People - listen to your children!!! They are the experts of themselves!

There are just two other parts that I have to write about. The first is that there seems to be confusion on the part of the author in the difference between gender identity (the gender you perceive yourself to be) and sexual orientation (the gender you are sexually attracted to). The author doesn't seem to understand that these two things are not related.

The other thing I want to comment on is the underlying belief that all these children have to suffer the taunting of their school peers. Children do NOT have to suffer this kind of cruelty! Do whatever you have to do to keep your children home if society cannot accept them for who they are. Let them develop their sense of self without cruel children telling them they are a freak.

I came away from this book with a strong belief that intersexed children should remain as they were born until they decide that they want to do something about it. But they need the full support of their parents to be able to develop into who they are meant to be without the taunting and teasing of people who think everyone must be the same (well, they can be a boy or a girl, but beyond that the girls all must be the same and the boys must all be the same).

I also came away with a slight fear of "experts". There is something to be said for people who have humility and a more fluid viewpoint. Who can consider actual circumstances rather than always have the "right" answer before even being presented with the case.

While this isn't a parenting book, I chose to place in on my parenting shelf because I feel that it is an important book for parents.

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Apr 29, 2013 Maria Meagher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-read

I had read accounts of David's story before, so I was already aware of the bare facts of this book. What I had not been aware of, and what horrified me, was not only the lack of scientific rigour and empirical evidence behind fundamentally life-changing procedures, but the level to which one forceful individual could dominate a field, and the willingness of other professionals to ignore their own misgivings rather than challenge such a character. What was particularly disturbing was that many of...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Ficbot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, non-fiction

This was a re-read for me; got the ebook of an old paper read and read it again to make sure the ebook was ok before I sold the paper copy.

This book was just as gripping as I remember it. Colapinto occasionally is a little fancy, using a big word when a more regular one will do, but the story is so compelling that I forgive him. And the ebook had an epilogue, absent in the original paper version, updating readers on how the family fared after the publication of the book.

I have seen in my own lif...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Cecelia Hightower added it

Shelves: bill-2013

Written by John Colapinto in 2000. This is a non-fiction book about a set of twin boys born to a very young down to earth couple. Due to some urinary problems the two boys were having their doctor recommended that the boys be circumcised. During the procedure on the first baby there was a serious accident and the baby,s penis was destroyed. Months later they heard about a Dr. Money with the John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore that asserted that a person's gender is determined only by the way a hu...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Simone rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book touched my heart (I cried), made me angry and confused all at the same time. I wondered if there was no other option. I wondered, how would his life, the twins lives have been had there parents made another decision or sought help elsewhere. Quick background... Its a true story of a boy, born with a twin brother, both perfectly natural healthy twins males named Bruce and Brian. This story follows Bruce, later known as Brenda then as David. During a routine circumcision 8 after months t...more This book touched my heart (I cried), made me angry and confused all at the same time. I wondered if there was no other option. I wondered, how would his life, the twins lives have been had there parents made another decision or sought help elsewhere. Quick background... Its a true story of a boy, born with a twin brother, both perfectly natural healthy twins males named Bruce and Brian. This story follows Bruce, later known as Brenda then as David. During a routine circumcision 8 after months the boys were born and living as baby boys and growing fine, Bruce's penis was burned completely off beyond surgical repair. His naive distraught parents Janet and Ronald Reimer feared the life he would lead as a boy without a penis and sought out a doctor they new was studying gender association and reassignment and allowed this "mad scientist" John Money to study Bruce and use him as a test subject and his brother as a case study having never tried his theory on a male, born normal with no complications or prior sexual disorientation or abonormality. He used Bruce to see if gender could be learned as if even without a penis, your DNA and chromosomes still won't force you to feel like a male, and have male desires and have no attraction physical or sexual to other males. They messed up. His innate masculinity kicked in at age 9 after years of torment. Dr. Money had no knowledge of this assuming his experiment worked and gender could be learned because he lost all contact with the Reimer's since Bruce, now Brenda threntened to kill himself if his parents sent him back to Dr. Money for another summer. His time with Dr. Money was beyond dreadful/ unpleasant. They stopped reporting to money about his progress as female, which was not working, and at 14 he changed his name to David and lived life then on as a man. Even with estrogen injections, female clothing and breasts, he never felt like a girl. This story is sick and will break your heart. Dr. Money deserved to be castrated and have science shoved up his ass, having forced Bruce, During the peak of the gender study rehearse sexual acts with his TWIN BROTHER as KIDS! These enactments consisted of thrusting and different sexual positions including but not limited to missionary and anal, having Bruce be on the bottom, Brian on top with Bruce's/Brenda's legs open and upward. It's sad because not only did it affect Bruce/Brenda/David, it forever tarnished his twin brother as well. Both suffering with life long depression, and drug use. This is so deep. Must read. It was hard to read for me because I loathe anyone you hurts or disturbs children, especially boys stripping them of there masculinity or manhood at a young age before it can be fully developed or molded. Visually picturing the boys with there clothes off being forced to do genital examinations on each other as SIBLINGS no less, if so awful. Gender reassignment or not making his bother a key component to the research was disgusting. They were bound to be messed up and disassociated from there parents and everyone else they came in contact with forever. Truly sad. It does open your eyes to the lengths doctors/scientists will go to prove a theory. Even pushing the lines of morality and mother nature. (less)

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Oct 15, 2012 Meg rated it 5 of 5 stars

A really good piece of narrative nonfiction. I decided I had to up this book to a "five star" because I have read it so many times - clearly a book that has intrigued me enough to come back to again and again. I think my real obsession with this book is Dr. John Money. To me he represents a great deal about who I am and wish I wasn't. I love to form opinions, strong ones, and to act as if I know. At least I haven't had any of my stronger opinions made the medical standard of treatment. So far.

T...more

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Gloria He was never known as Brendon. He was born Bruce, but when he found out his birth sex, and began living as a male, changed his name from Brenda to Dav...more
Jan 02, 2013 08:31am

Melanie Short You are perfectly correct about the name...sorry, it had been a while since I last read the book. I agree that it was terrible what happened to David....more
Apr 05, 2013 11:16pm

Jun 01, 2012 Sasha rated it 4 of 5 stars

"As nature made him" was a deeply disturbing and important book about the way doctors and hospitals can destroy people's lives with the best of the intentions.

Author John Colapinto is clearly against accepted opinion that babies with genital defects have to be operated and sometimes operations are so drastic that kids get a sex change - he points that rarely if ever, this children grown into happy individuals for a simple reason that genes and hormones are much stronger than any clothes parents...more "As nature made him" was a deeply disturbing and important book about the way doctors and hospitals can destroy people's lives with the best of the intentions.

Author John Colapinto is clearly against accepted opinion that babies with genital defects have to be operated and sometimes operations are so drastic that kids get a sex change - he points that rarely if ever, this children grown into happy individuals for a simple reason that genes and hormones are much stronger than any clothes parents might dress a kid into.To illustrate this point he turns to the most celebrated baby sex change case of David Reimer who was born as a twin but something went terribly wrong during circumcising and doctors basically burned off his little penis,leaving parents wondering what to do. They contacted celebrated surgeon who advised them the best thing would be to change sex of the baby and raise him as a girl.It was excellent for a surgeon who built his career out of this case and became world-known but parents and the child had really hard time with this,because it didn't work out so easily as expected. Poor little boy suffered terribly during childhood because he never behaved like a girl should have and was cruelly teased in any school he went to. During puberty he was forced to take female hormons that would start a grow of breasts but he always felt deeply unhappy until parents finally told him about unlucky incident and than he realized nothing is wrong with him, "I am not crazy after all" he said to himself and refused to wear girl's clothes from than on.

Unfortunately the damage has already been done and change of clothes did not erase the years of sadness and confusion in David who even got married and later went on TV with his experience. All this time hospitals and medical teams were still doing operations on little babies (surely with best intentions) pointing how successfully David Reimer lived where in fact this operation was a complete disaster not only for him but also for his parents (father became an alcoholic and mother ended up in sanatorium). When author of this book faced surgeons and asked them to show one happy child who actually lived as a satisfied later,they always gave vague answers about patients who wanted to keep their privacy. This goes as even now an official group of activists from San Francisco (ISNA) protests and writes about this problem, but they rarely get acknowledged in the media and big hospitals are ignoring them.

Sadly,both David Reimer and his twin brother committed suicide later. I am really saddened to hear about this (I found it on internet,it happened after the book was already published) and I am sure that it could have been different if they had friends who could help them and support them. I can't even imagine how the parents must feel now.(less)

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May 06, 2012 Alicia rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: sorry-of-sorry-i-picked-it-up

I don't know why I pick up books like this one.

Isn't it obvious, people, that one cannot choose a gender as you might a shirt? Say you do believe that between nature and nurture, it is how you are raised that creates more of an impact...Can you honestly believe that one's heritage -- what we used to call blood, but now call genes -- is not the wild card in one's ability to change one's life?

I read this book a while back and forget some of the details. A bungled circumcision was 'fixed' by raisin...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Victoria rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is an excellent, excellent example of the importance of truth in research, of being willing to hear people who disagree with you, and of realizing that everyone has their own biases. We as human beings need one another to balance out those biases, and to learn to work together for the benefit of all.

If you're uncomfortable with the subject matter, I will assure you that this book is quite tasteful and professional, but I will not pretend that it isn't also alarming and occasionally dar...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This book is a very disturbing account of how a botched circumcision led a mother and father into believing that transforming their little boy into a girl was the only way their child would have a healthy upbringing. Their decision based solely on the "expertise" of a well known, well respected doctor in the area of gender transformation. Although all reports by Dr. Money would have the medical community believing the transformation from boy to girl was a success the truth, with the help of a jo...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars

I always held Johns Hopkins in the highest esteem as a university, partly because I'm a Baltimore native and partly because of its worldly medical expertise. This book helped me understand that doctors are human (mistakes are reality), but also that medical theories and beliefs evolve through time, just as any others. Dr. John Money, a psychologist originally from New Zealand, led the original movement at Hopkins in the 50s and 60s that believed nurture was very much in control over nature in re...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Corinne E. Blackmer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sexuality, contemporary, non-fiction, science

As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
This compelling, disturbing, humane book forms a segment within a larger history of medical sexology stemming from Richard von Krafft Ebing and Sigmund Freud to Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson to John Money and Richard Diamond. In brief, a surgical mishap turns into a titanic disaster because of theories of human sexuality and gender identity that have no empirical or scientific basis, but, rather, reflect the ego, the ambitions, and the...more As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
This compelling, disturbing, humane book forms a segment within a larger history of medical sexology stemming from Richard von Krafft Ebing and Sigmund Freud to Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson to John Money and Richard Diamond. In brief, a surgical mishap turns into a titanic disaster because of theories of human sexuality and gender identity that have no empirical or scientific basis, but, rather, reflect the ego, the ambitions, and the self-delusion of the physician involved.
Bruce Reimer has, as an infant, a condition that makes it painful to urinate and so the doctors decide to give him a circumcision, which is a perfectly reasonable decision and routine procedure. However, in a freak accident, the circumcision is botched, and Bruce's penis destroyed. The Reimers are told that their son "must live a life apart," never get married and never expect the ordinary social comforts and connections as other people. This reaction gives an absolute primacy to the possession of the penis and the remainder of the book goes on to explore how misguided such views are. The parents are desperate and enlist the assistance of Dr. John Money after they see him on television. His proferred solution? Turn the botched boy into a normal girl, and rename Bruce Brenda. The surgeries must be done as soon as possible, and the hormone therapies begun on schedule--for Dr. Money's theory is that gender identity becomes "imprinted" around the age of 2 1/2 and becomes increasingly difficult to alter after that window of time. Brenda undergoes a surgery to remove her testicles, which eliminates permanently the chance for reproduction. However, although the Reimers do their best to raise what had been their boy as a girl, the experiment fails miserably, and Brenda behaves like an aggressive, self-assertive boy who is nonetheless a ridiculed outsider who is held back in school. Despite these facts, Dr. Money reports in his research that the "twins experiment" (Brenda has a brother) has been a great success that shows that gender identity is not biologically determined but, rather, socially constructed and malleable. Indeed, Dr. Money writes several notorious books on the basis of what he and other regard as his great success in this famous case. Among other things, Dr. Money lauds consensual incest (whatever that could possibly mean), parents walking around naked in front of their children, children's sexual role play in preparation for adulthood, and so forth, including sympathetic treatments of rather repugnant perversions. Throughout, however, Dr. Money remains an adamant and unwavering homophobe, who sees homosexuality, as he sees gender identity, as socially acquired as opposed to biologically imprinted and, therefore, natural. David is rescued by a woman psychiatrist with whom he creates an anti-Dr. Money group and upon the insistence of this noble psychiatrist, under whom "patients actually got well," the parents tell Brenda of his actual past. At this point, Brenda changes his name to David, stops taking hormone therapy, and, eventually, gets married and becomes a father to the children of his wife. Sigmund Freud had been the first to posit the primacy of the penis in constructing sexual and gender identity, and one cannot imagine a more devastating rebuke of his theories than this book, which reduces the Oedipus Complex into an idle theory proferred by someone who did not have the means to know what he was talking about and therefore relied on prejudice and inspired best guesses. It is refreshing to hear that the field of pediatric medicine has advanced greatly since the time that the events in this book took place, but it is also sad that David, following his brother Brian, committed suicide.(less)

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Oct 11, 2011 Corinne Blackmer rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Pilar Stewart

Shelves: fiction

This compelling, disturbing, humane book forms a segment within a larger history of medical sexology stemming from Richard von Krafft Ebing and Sigmund Freud to Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson to John Money and Richard Diamond. In brief, a surgical mishap turns into a titanic disaster because of theories of human sexuality and gender identity that have no empirical or scientific basis, but, rather, reflect the ego, the ambitions, and the self-delusion of the physician involved.
Bruce Reimer...more This compelling, disturbing, humane book forms a segment within a larger history of medical sexology stemming from Richard von Krafft Ebing and Sigmund Freud to Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson to John Money and Richard Diamond. In brief, a surgical mishap turns into a titanic disaster because of theories of human sexuality and gender identity that have no empirical or scientific basis, but, rather, reflect the ego, the ambitions, and the self-delusion of the physician involved.
Bruce Reimer has, as an infant, a condition that makes it painful to urinate and so the doctors decide to give him a circumcision, which is a perfectly reasonable decision and routine procedure. However, in a freak accident, the circumcision is botched, and Bruce's penis destroyed. The Reimers are told that their son "must live a life apart," never get married and never expect the ordinary social comforts and connections as other people. This reaction gives an absolute primacy to the possession of the penis and the remainder of the book goes on to explore how misguided such views are. The parents are desperate and enlist the assistance of Dr. John Money after they see him on television. His proferred solution? Turn the botched boy into a normal girl, and rename Bruce Brenda. The surgeries must be done as soon as possible, and the hormone therapies begun on schedule--for Dr. Money's theory is that gender identity becomes "imprinted" around the age of 2 1/2 and becomes increasingly difficult to alter after that window of time. Brenda undergoes a surgery to remove her testicles, which eliminates permanently the chance for reproduction. However, although the Reimers do their best to raise what had been their boy as a girl, the experiment fails miserably, and Brenda behaves like an aggressive, self-assertive boy who is nonetheless a ridiculed outsider who is held back in school. Despite these facts, Dr. Money reports in his research that the "twins experiment" (Brenda has a brother) has been a great success that shows that gender identity is not biologically determined but, rather, socially constructed and malleable. Indeed, Dr. Money writes several notorious books on the basis of what he and other regard as his great success in this famous case. Among other things, Dr. Money lauds consensual incest (whatever that could possibly mean), parents walking around naked in front of their children, children's sexual role play in preparation for adulthood, and so forth, including sympathetic treatments of rather repugnant perversions. Throughout, however, Dr. Money remains an adamant and unwavering homophobe, who sees homosexuality, as he sees gender identity, as socially acquired as opposed to biologically imprinted and, therefore, natural. David is rescued by a woman psychiatrist with whom he creates an anti-Dr. Money group and upon the insistence of this noble psychiatrist, under whom "patients actually got well," the parents tell Brenda of his actual past. At this point, Brenda changes his name to David, stops taking hormone therapy, and, eventually, gets married and becomes a father to the children of his wife. Sigmund Freud had been the first to posit the primacy of the penis in constructing sexual and gender identity, and one cannot imagine a more devastating rebuke of his theories than this book, which reduces the Oedipus Complex into an idle theory proferred by someone who did not have the means to know what he was talking about and therefore relied on prejudice and inspired best guesses. It is refreshing to hear that the field of pediatric medicine has advanced greatly since the time that the events in this book took place, but it is also sad that David, following his brother Brian, committed suicide.(less)

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Apr 06, 2011 Mirek Kukla rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: other

This thought-provoking book documents the tragic story of Bruce/Brenda/David - the boy who was raised a girl.

A few decades back, David's case was presented as the definitive answer to the 'Nature vs. Nurture' question: are the sexes socially constructed, or are there inherent differences between the genders? 'Sexual identity is the product of nurture,' the medical community had decided, and David - then Brenda - was the primary piece of evidence.

David was born a boy. However, after a botched cir...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Sadie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, non-fiction

One of my biggest interests in academia is gender theory, the study of gender identification, gender vs sex etc. Therefore when I heard about this book I was immediately intrigued and immediately horrified at the ridiculous medical advice and practices of Dr. Money.

This book is such a tragic story for one family's and one young mans incredible loss as they tried to do what they thought was best in the face of a really awful doctor. I appreciated the balance of the personal story with scientific...more

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Dec 22, 2010 King rated it 4 of 5 stars

Heartbreaking. Disturbing. Tragic.

This is actually a case study of two people, David Reimer and John Mooney.

Reimer's tale was... riveting, to say the least. I had knots in my throat during some parts, particularly when he and his brother were forced to simulate sex during a therapy session. Other parts, I just felt like jumping into the pages and protecting Reimer from the horrors he was experiencing.

I was also deeply saddened by the fact that he could not say he had a real friend until, grade...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Phoebe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: phreminism, nonfic, loved-it

I first encountered David Reimer’s story as a kid: my mother was getting her special ed certification and brought home a textbook on Child Psychology. At the end of one of the chapters, there was a brief sidebar about the case, which detailed its success, save for an incident when the little boy-turned-girl in question threw her panties over a neighbor’s fence.

But, as I learned through John Colapinto’s powerful As Nature Made Him: The Boy who was Raised a Girl, that rosy-if-mischievous picture c...more I first encountered David Reimer’s story as a kid: my mother was getting her special ed certification and brought home a textbook on Child Psychology. At the end of one of the chapters, there was a brief sidebar about the case, which detailed its success, save for an incident when the little boy-turned-girl in question threw her panties over a neighbor’s fence.

But, as I learned through John Colapinto’s powerful As Nature Made Him: The Boy who was Raised a Girl, that rosy-if-mischievous picture couldn’t have been further from the truth. David, born Bruce Reimer, was indeed raised a girl, Brenda, when doctors gave his parents no other feasible options after a botched circumcision at eight months old. Though this case was often touted by his doctor, John Money, as immutable proof that gender was completely a social construction, the truth is that Brenda had an incredibly unhappy childhood, marked by social difficulties and competition with her twin brother, Brian, and marred further by disturbing therapeutic sessions (which included forced viewings of pornography and graphic sexual conversations) administered by Money.

Colapinto’s account is vividly and soundly written. It’s an incredibly fast-read and has the juicy journalistic quality of a good episode of Dateline, not to mention a similarly horrific car-crash-on-the-highway feel. Colapinto’s strong descriptions of David and his family are incredibly sympathetic; when, after finishing the book, I learned that both David and his brother Brian died at their own hands in 2004 and 2002 respectively, I fully felt the loss of their lives that had, I suppose, begun nearly four decades earlier.

Before the publication of As Nature Made Him, the then-anonymous case of the Reimers was often cited by feminists as proof that it was nurture, not nature—upbringing, and not sex—that determines gender. The sad truth is that, had doctors been more open-minded about what constitutes a “boy” or a “man”, David Reimer would have never been subjected to castration, would never have had to endure therapy sessions with Money where he was forced to pose naked with his brother in order to model “proper gender roles”, would never have had to struggle in school and at home with the conviction that he wasn’t really a girl. The motives of the doctors were reductionist, as David himself says: “It just seems that they implied that you’re nothing if your penis is gone. The second you lose that, you’re nothing, and they’ve got to do surgery and hormones to turn you into something. Like you’re a zero. It’s like your whole personality, everything about you is all directed—all pinpointed—toward what’s between his legs. And to me, that’s ignorant. I don’t have the kind of education that these scientists and doctors and psychologists have, but to me it’s very ignorant.” (262)

I do think that there’s a feminist lesson to be found in Reimer’s story: namely, that prescriptivist attitudes toward gender and sex are problematic, and that forcing gender models (and certainly genital surgery) on young children who cannot express their feelings about their own gender or sex is a dangerous game.(less)

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Jun 03, 2009 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 12thgrade

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 25, 2009 Chin added it

Shelves: advisory-11-2008-2009

During the time of 1965, Ron and Janet Reimer, a young Canadian couple, gave birth to two healthy boy twins. Once Bruce and Brian were about eight months old, the Reimers took them in to the hospital because of difficulties. Baby Bruce Reimer had his penis practically burned off. Then one night in 1967, the Reimers were hopeful when met they Dr. Money, who had success in sex change operations, with new genders. Over a period of time, Bruce turned to Brenda.
As an experiment, Money had a focus on...more During the time of 1965, Ron and Janet Reimer, a young Canadian couple, gave birth to two healthy boy twins. Once Bruce and Brian were about eight months old, the Reimers took them in to the hospital because of difficulties. Baby Bruce Reimer had his penis practically burned off. Then one night in 1967, the Reimers were hopeful when met they Dr. Money, who had success in sex change operations, with new genders. Over a period of time, Bruce turned to Brenda.
As an experiment, Money had a focus on the idea that one was raised a boy, the other raised a girl. He planned to scrutinize behavioral differences between the two. The Reimer twins were exactly the guinea pigs or the white laboratory mice being tested to prove his theory as correct. Brenda, however, didn't like dresses or dolls that a typical girl was expected to like. But, she wanted to play with trucks, along with her brother. Continued to treat Brenda like a girl, Brenda suffered from emotional and behavioral problems.
Money had reported that baby Bruce's gender reassignment was a complete success and that Brenda had grown up as a happy, well-adjusted girl. However, he manipulated Brenda’s response, Money interpreted and assumed Brenda’s response was “girl” to prove his theory. Despite of the sex change, however she still managed to live a healthy, happy life. Colapinto quotes Money’s transcripts in the incident of the interview with Brenda, “I then asked her if she would want to be a boy monkey or a girl monkey. Her reply is audible on the tape, ‘a girl one.’ I inquire as to why…Again, the reply is audible on the tape, “I’m already a girl.’ The pronunciation of girl is as if it were spelled g-r-i-r-l.”(Colapinto 103).
At the time, David himself said, reflecting on this issue, that he had said gorilla instead of girl. Money didn’t go any further than girl because it was what he wanted to prove all along. Money created bias to fit his interpretation of his work. In the psychological perspective; traits and characteristics that we associate with gender were entirely incorrect based upon Money’s interpretation of his experiment with Brenda Reimer. Money set as the example that these trait stereotypes are not trustworthy.
It was not until Milton Diamond, a biologist, found flaws within Money’s work on gender differences. Money’s data of Brenda Reimer were being misused.
If Brenda would to be in my high school class, depending on her actions, I would want to get to know her a little. Because I would want to treat someone they way they would treat me. We are not judging her by appearance for what she is. (less)

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Apr 27, 2009 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

i thought this book was actually very interesting...
it was written very scientifically and included the opinions of many doctors and psychologists, but nevertheless, was still written in a way that wasnt so boring because there was a story behind it. it included alot of freudism and opinions of more modern doctors such as dr. john money, who was the main reason why this whole experiment became a failure.
it was interesting to see that even though he was raised as a girl, without the male genitals...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Jacqueline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-2009

This book raised so many questions about the different ways people grow up and develop. John Colapinto writes the story of a David Reimer, a man who was born male but was taught to be a girl. When David--born as Bruce--was a baby, he experienced a devastating circumcision accident that burned off his reproductive organ. Not knowing what to do, his parents, Ron and Janet Reimer, followed the advice of Dr. John Money and decided to (as the title suggests) raise him as a girl, transforming Bruce in...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Daisy*•.♥.•* rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-biography

**Warning**
This book is not for the squeamish as it describes in vivid detail the surgeries David had to endure throughout his life.

Many different thoughts and opinions will arise when reading this book. The horrific account that this poor child had to go through was just heart breaking.

I really felt bad for the predicament that the parents were in as well first to have to go through the botch circumcision of their child and then to have to decide on how to raise them. It was a very hard call...more

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About John Colapinto

An award-winning journalist, author and novelist and is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Prior to working at The New Yorker, Colapinto wrote for Vanity Fair, New York magazine and The New York Times Magazine, and in 1995 he became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone,[1] where he published feature stories on a variety of subjects ranging from AIDS, to kids and guns, to heroin in the mu...more An award-winning journalist, author and novelist and is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Prior to working at The New Yorker, Colapinto wrote for Vanity Fair, New York magazine and The New York Times Magazine, and in 1995 he became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone,[1] where he published feature stories on a variety of subjects ranging from AIDS, to kids and guns, to heroin in the music business, to Penthouse magazine creator, Bob Guccione (his Guccione story was a finalist for the ASME award in profile writing in 2004). In 1998, he published a 20,000 word feature story in Rolling Stone titled The True Story of John/Joan, an account of David Reimer, who had undergone a sex change in infancy—a medical experiment long heralded as a success, but which was, in fact, a failure. The story, which detailed not only Reimer's tortured life, but the medical scandal surrounding its cover-up, won the ASME Award for reporting and in 2000, Colapinto published a book-length account of the case, As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As A Girl. The book was a New York Times bestseller and the film rights were bought by Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Colapinto also wrote a novel, About the Author, a tale of literary envy and theft. It was published in August 2001 and was a number 6 pick on the Booksense 76 list of best novels of the season; it was a nominee for the IMPAC literary award and for a number of years was under option by Dreamworks, where playwright Patrick Marber (Closer and Howard Katz) wrote a screen adaptation. The film rights to the novel have since been acquired by producer Scott Rudin.

As a writer for The New Yorker, Colapinto has written about subjects as diverse as medicinal leeches; Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer; fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld and Rick Owens; the linguistic oddities of the Pirahã people (an Amazonian tribe); and Paul McCartney. His piece on the Piraha was anthologized in "The Best American Science and Nature Writing" (2008); his New Yorker story about loss prevention (anti-theft in stores) was included in "The Best American Crime Reporting" (2009);[2] and his New Yorker profile of neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran was selected by Freeman Dyson for inclusion in "The Best American Science and Nature Writing" (2010).

John Colapinto lives on New York City's Upper East Side. He is married to fashion illustrator and artist, Donna Mehalko, and they have one son.

-Wikipedia(less)

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