The discussion of gender roles and their importance in our lives and the lives of others has become a prevalent topic of discussion today.
However, gender relates to biological sex, and the difference between them is somewhat recent. It was coined in the 1950s in a book by John Money, a sexologist and psychologist.
He held a theory that gender identity, the way people identify themselves in a spectrum between man and woman, is learned.
His most famous, or infamous, study came from the experiments performed on David Reimer, whose birth name was Bruce, and whose name after that was Brenda.
David Reimer remains a divisive human topic of discussion, as his entire life was turned into an experiment for the sake of psychological science.
The result of the investigation has also had divisive conclusions, as regardless of how anyone gauges the idea of success can be influenced on whether or not his death impacted the study he was part of, especially concerning why he chose to kill himself.
10 /10 Born Bruce
David was once born Bruce, the twin sibling of Brian to Ron and Janet Reimer in 1965 in Winnipeg, Canada. He was a perfectly ordinary and healthy baby boy up until an accident occurred.
While performing a circumcision, a doctor used a different tool than average and accidentally removed the entire penis from Bruce’s body.
His parents were shocked and didn’t know what to do, but they had to make a fast decision before the process completely scarred and disfigured their still infant son for life.
9 /10 Mr. Money
That was when the family discovered Dr. John Money. The latter at the time was enjoying the success of his scholarly works, which made him one of the world’s leading experts on sex and gender identity and the links to medical conditions.
They saw him talking on TV and thought he would know what to do, so they went to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to see him.