Analysis of the David Reimer Story The story of David Reimer is unquestionably an eye opener to the unknown world of gender identity in North America. This story was not only heartbreaking in nature, it also was quite disturbing. I tend to believe that doctors have their patient’s best interest in mind; however, that does not seem to be the case between Dr. Money and David Reimer. While watching the video of David story, I wanted to understand the Doctor’s theory, ponder whether I could accept his proposed validity, and answer the question of what I would do, as a parent, if I was placed into a similar situation as David’s parents. Dr. Money had a theory that pertained to nature vs. nurture. He referred to his theory as the theory of Gender Neutrality. The doctor proposed was that identity genes were neutral in the first two years of life and because of this a child could be raised as the opposite gender given the parent nurtured the child as that particular gender. I disagree with Dr. Money’s theory and I felt that he took advantage of David, and his family, by brainwashing them in order to enhance his own theory. After all he needed this experiment to work since he was the one who was bringing the notion that genders could in fact be …show more content…
Nonetheless, I do know as a parent, I only desire the best for my children. I suppose in a similar situation, having my child transform into another gender would only add to the existing problems. Not only would my child have to deal with being anatomically incorrect, they would also have to struggle with their identity and who they are as a person. This is troubling because I realize life, as it is, can be stressful enough without trying to figure out what ones gender is. So, I don’t feel I would have taken the same steps as David’s parents did in this
The doctor would even make Brian stand behind Brenda checking for sexual arousal. During childhood Brenda lived as a girl but still had male tendencies. She fought like boys, did not like baby dolls, and she still walked like a boy. Brenda took estrogen until
In their respective pieces about the transgender community, Mari Birghe’s piece falls short due to its lack of detailed examples and its heavy reliance on eliciting sympathy from the reader to persuade as well as its failure to see the other side of the argument while Elinor Burkett’s piece proves far superior due to its multitude of extensive examples in addition to its surplus of concessions. Burkett’s piece is stronger in part due to the surplus of concrete examples provided in contrast to Birghe’s meager examples. In Elinor Burketts’s piece, which states transgender women are not entirely female because of their previous male privilege, she intertwines many specific examples that help to prove her overall message. This is that transgender
The Reivers The inspirational story that The Reivers describes is one that represents the progression of a young boy understanding the dark realities that life truly has to offer. These significant realities are based around racism, jealousy, corruption, betrayal, sexism, and theft that revolved around the 1900’s are the common difficulties that a person living in America would have to go through. Also, the story was one that proved to show great familiarity between the characters and understand the story’s true goal on symbolism. The story follows a young boy by the age of eleven whose name is Lucius Priest and his family’s retainer, Boon Hogganbeck.
All over the country children are brought up with parents that don’t consider gender and sexuality to be valid and when school don’t acknowledge this either they may need to research on their own what they are feeling, which can be damaging to a young person’s thoughts as they will believe that all the adults around them do not desire for them to have awareness of their feelings. In some cases, these children are never taught what they feel to be legitimate and perfectly acceptable. It is only when these children become adults that they realise that the way the feel is not amiss. When analysing a negative article, it is valuable to also view an article that displays the
In the novel The Catcher in The Rye, there are many interesting characters, including the protagonist Holden Caulfield and the relatively minor character Stradlater. Their vary from one another in their attitudes towards academics, relationships, and in their sanity While it is may be said that Stradlater and Holden behave similarly regarding academics, they do differ ever so slightly. Holden for one has a deplorable work ethic as he openly states on pg. 13 “That his only interests in school were in English and one semester of History.” He also it may be said, cares very little about his grades, and has failed to meet the mark in many of his previous schools.
Kirksey said her religious beliefs made her approval of the change impossible, and she felt that she had a duty to protect the girl from possible bullying and help dozens of other children and their parents, who she said deserved to be told about the change. She said those beliefs cost her a job. One day, she wanted to be a girl, the next day she wanted to be a boy,” Kirksey told FOX26. “The other kids are confused as well, calling her a boy and she would start screaming, ‘I’m not a boy!’” “I don’t think we should be talking to other people’s children who are under the age of 18 about being transgender,” she said.
This strong belief against only using medical help was heightened by the doctors frustration towards the Lee family for not following instructions, as well as the difference in perspectives of seeing Lia’s condition as special, the Lee family feeling as if Lia was “like a member of royalty” (Fadiman, 1997, p.22) due to her condition, and the doctors stubbornness to treat it with a multitude of medications with negative side effects. Unfortunately, the combination of not understanding the medication application, as well as conflicting culture beliefs, lead the doctors to think the Lee family was not complying with them, and felt “Lia’s parents were endangering her health” (Fadiman, 1997, p.79) which lead them to contact child services. This process of taking away Lia, which only worsened her condition, could have been handled more appropriately if the doctors had underwent enculturation, being defined as “the process of learning behaviors, languages, beliefs, and roles common to ones first or home cultures” (Barrera et al., 2012 p. xx), this allowing the doctors to not think poorly of the Lia’s parent’s but instead understanding of the cultural beliefs and reasons for them. However, it would be unfair to state the doctors didn’t give the Lee’s the benefit of the doubt, Fadiman (1997) stating that Neil, one of Lia’s doctors, “postponed calling Child Protective Services for as long as he could, giving Lia’s parents every possible chance to reform, talking the case over with his wife every night” (Fadiman, 1997, p.79) and only reported the family under the true impression that he was doing what was in the best interest of
There is an entire population in the United States that needs support, and so much of it can be solved by something as small as adding one more little box on a piece of paper. Intersex, according to the Intersex Society of North America, is a “general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male” (par. 1). World-renowned Brown University Biology and Gender Studies professor, Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, further explains the biological meaning of intersex as the in-between development of male and female genital types based on the size of the phallus (Fausto-Sterling, 50). Both males and females start with the same beginning stages of the phallus, but develop into a clitoris for females or a penis for males based on their chromosomes. Society may not know or hear about the intersex people population because it also consists of people born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which won’t show up until later in life or not at all because they are chromosomal differences, hormonal imbalances, or physically inside the body.
Perhaps one of the most fascinating yet depressing studies on gender, its fluidity, and how oppressive it can be is the case of David Reimer. In Chapter 3 of "Undoing Gender" by Judith Butler, this situation was studied in detail and psychoanalyzed. When Reimer was extremely young (under a year old), his penis was damaged and had to be removed, so psychiatrist John Money stepped in and told Reimer's parents that they could have sex reassignment surgery, raise David as a girl, and he'd live a normal and happy life. David was thus renamed Brenda and was brought up as female. Around age eight, however, Brenda started exhibiting traditionally masculine behaviors such as wanting to play with trucks and toy guns.
Diagnosis (DX) Case Discussion Board Template Introduction Gender Dysphoria affects adolescents and adults. When a person starts to experience distress due to their assigned gender at birth, that individual can clinically be diagnosed as having Gender Dysphoria. According to the DSM (2013), a person who suffers from Gender Dysphoria will have a strong desire to get rid of their primary characteristics. As a result, the individual starts to develop aspects of the opposite sex in which the person would like to transition.
In Tobias Wolff’s short story “The Liar,” the protagonist, James, lies to help him construct a new identity outside of his family. James tells morbid lies about his mother in order to distance himself from her. Since, the loss of his father, James no longer associates with people who are like him. The lies started after his father’s death and his mother starts noticing how much differently he was acting. Since his mother is treating him like she is disappointed in him, James begins to devolve into a state of repressed bitterness.
Notably, the “T” in LGBT stands for transgender, which includes those who do not conform to the traditional ideals of their ‘gender’ or birth sex (Ard & Makadon, 2012). In some cases, these individuals may decide to go through hormonal therapy or surgery to alter their gender identity. Due to the fact that the transgender population in the US is known to only be 0.3%, many are uneducated about the medical needs of these individuals, including physicians (Ard & Makadon, 2012). Moreover, a policy to diminish LGBT care disparities should also educate people (especially physicians) in understanding the cultural context of their patients’ lives (LGBT individuals) in order for all people to attain the best possible
In beginning, this study will compare the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson and Mary Jemison. These narratives of Indian captivity in the mid-17th century provide a way to understand the methods that both women employed to survive. The first similarity between these two women is related to their Protestant background, which was a normative part of colonial life in New England during this historical period. In this manner, Rowlandson utilizes the religious tenets of practical religious belief to define her captivity with the Indians: “Life-mercies are heart-affecting-mercies: of great impression and force, and to enlarge pious hearts in praises of God” (Rowlandson 10). This is also evident in the Protestant upbringing of Mary Jemison, which defines the foundations of their original cultural heritage that is shared in these capacity narratives: “For it was the daily practice of my father, morning and evening, to attend, in his family; to the worship of God”
The story “Yours” by Mary Robinson is a short story about a married couple spending their Halloween evening together before the death of his young wife. His wife was suffering from cancer. The story starts with Allison, the wife, coming in from getting pumpkins for the evening events with her husband. She walks through their home where she finds the mail. She finds a letter from her husband’s relatives who saying awful things.
Transgender is the term used to describe an individual whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. The documentary, “Growing up Trans”, is a sensitive clip to watch about young youths who attempt to navigate family, friends, gender, and the medical decisions they face at puberty. “Growing up Trans” focuses mainly on transitioned young youths. The transgender youth from the documentary links to many theories from chapter eight. Theories such as socialization, gender, sexuality, homophobia, transphobia, and microaggression are associated with “Growing up Trans”.