I remember studying this case. What a tragic end.
This is getting very little press; not even *The Advocate’*s site has anything. Here’s an article from a Canadian newspaper.
Eve, it was front page story of the Guardian’s (UK broadsheet) supplement on Wednesday. I’m not sure how to code links but here it is.
I read it sitting in a bar in Amsterdam … burst into tears. Such a tragic story.
There were some questions asked about management of intersex conditions in infants.
The position of intersex activists (such as Intersex Initiative) is that no child should be subjected to reassignment surgery without their consent. Genital surgery of any kind on children should be limited to cases where the child’s health is at stake (such as a malfunctioning urinary apparatus).
Intervention should consist of psychosocial support for the parents and child, and respect for the child’s evolving gender identity.
David’s case is a gross example of the violation of a child’s genital integrity, error compounded with error, psychological God-playing, and gross failure to regard a child as human.
Furthermore, although/because he was a person who was born ‘typical’ with regard to genitals and gender identity, his suffering throws the pain and hardships faced by intersex and transgendered people in this society into very harsh relief indeed.
I had a brush with Johns Hopkins myself during the John Money years, and those people were . . . well, I can’t say outside of the Pit, but I made a me-shaped hole in the wall and went to the Pennsylvania Hosp. in Philadelphia, where they knew what they were doing.
How was this proof that nurture and socialization determine one’s gender when he was also being pumped full of female hormones? I’m not sure if that aspect gets covered in the study, but it seems like a big influence in how a child would behave and develope that’s outside the realm of simple “nurturing”.
That being said, it’s a terrible shame what happened to this poor man. Some people deserve a happy ending.
Very sad. Like many of you, I read As Nature Made Him and saw a show featuring David Reimer. I also saw John Money speak once, about 20 years ago. I was just a first year graduate student, but I knew enough to know something was off about him. He was talking about sex play among a “primitive” group and showed videos of children simulating sex. Odd, but what creeped me out was how slimy he seemed talking about it. When I read As Nature Made Him, I was appalled by his arrogance in his treatment of David, but not really surprised.
From further obits (many more today in various papers):
" . . . John Money already was the darling of radical feminists such as Kate Millett, who in her bestselling Sexual Politics two years earlier had cited Money’s writings from the 1950s as proof that ‘psychosexual personality is therefore postnatal and learned.’ Money stopped commenting publicly on the case in 1980 and never acknowledged that the experiment was anything but a glowing success . . . John Money remains an emeritus professor at Johns Hopkins. ‘He’s not commenting on this story,’ his assistant told the Guardian yesterday. ‘There is no comment to make.’"
Actually, insofar as his job situation, probably not. According to the Globe and Mail article on David Reimer:
The Reimer family is now undertaking legal action against the entrepreneur who took his money.
Not that any of this makes Reimer’s story less tragic, but it’s part of the story.
Oh, the article is here. Sorry about that.
I remember reading about this 15 years ago. This would have made him 23 at the time.
Yet the book I learned it from, a Sociology 101 book, said he was still a kid and was adjusting normally as a girl, and that when “she” reached puberty she would be
Now I wonder about the quality of my college education…
Still, it’s a sad case.
…given hormone therapy.
Sorry about that.
You would have to look at when your text book was written, not when you read it.
This is very sad story. I hope he finds peace.
I saw John Colapinto’s story when it was in Rolling Stone, and all i could think was “My God. What were they thinking?” Poor fellow. Godspeed.
I read that piece too, and of course, it ended on an optimistic note (I don’t think he was married, but he was living with this woman and helping raise her children), and from the quotes I remember he seemed hopeful. I’m sorry to hear things didn’t turn out better… talk about a guy who could’ve used some good breaks.
I’ll never forget that documentary (It was a Nova); it was absolutely heartbreaking. They didn’t show
David for the first 45 minutes and I thought they were leading up to his suicide but at that time he was still living, like Eve said, with wife and kids. I’ve never seen so much despair (or any emotion for that matter) in a person’s eyes. Never. I remember feeling so angry at that fucking doctor who faked the follow-up psychological evaluations that lead to the continued practice of gender “transforming” in cases of male infants with ambiguous genitalia or micropenises. Yea, everything transforms but the actual person. That fucker should be castrated and stripped off his license to practice medicine. His hubris ruined the life of another and his lies probably ruined the lives of many more. I’m so sorry to hear this. So damn sorry. And angry.
I really hope that as the gap between doctors and nurses lessens, and nurses get even more backing to talk back to doctors, that arrogant pricks like John Money are held in check.
I hope this comes out as kindly as I mean it, but the guy committed suicide, most likely, because he was depressed over his twin’s death, his buisness failures, and his marriage failure. None of these are gender issues. He had been living as his “correct” gender for years and years.
His amazining bizarre childhood may have deepened his propensity to depression, but it isn’t like he killed himself because he was forced to live in the wrong gender as an adult.
This is sad because the guy deserved a better break. But in reading this thread, it seems like people are seeing it as a failure for gender issues.
No, I just see it as “the poor guy couldn’t catch one goddam break in his life.” I do agree that his childhood probably predisposed him to psychological, umm, delicacy. But it’s mostly that he has such a horrible time early in life we all hoped for a happy ending for him.
And it infuriates me that John Money has never admitted he was wrong, and refuses to even comment on Reimer’s death.
I don’t understand why a Medical Review Board doesn’t take a look at this case. He deliberately falsified his findings and continued to write more books claiming success after Reimer told him otherwise. In the documentary I watched, they interviewed doctors who still believe in Money’s findings because they hadn’t been told otherwise. I’ve never written hate mail but I think I just might.