Gender: The Case Of David Reimer

In modern society there is a growing idea that gender is a concept of the mind and is more than just male or female. This has been perpetuated by theoretical science published by Dr. John Money, stating that nurturing a child to be a different gender than it was birthed was possible, but the proof was not there (Dr. Money...). The logic behind the idea seems valid, but is completely unsound as many of the premises used as fact are false. Dr. Money garnered most of his fame through the case of David Reimer. He was a born a male and a twin, however a botched circumcision and the outreach of his parents to Dr. Money caused his parents to raise him as a girl though he did not act like one, as a field-test. In the end it was not revealed to
An article written for the abberosexualist blog by Dr. Judy Meissner states, “‘gender’ is an ideologically imposed ‘euphemism’ for a human being’s sex, intended ‘to emphasize the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological distinctions between the sexes.’” This is an inherently biased definition based on a groups of people’s feelings, and prompts people to argue that gender has nothing to do with biological traits as it was previously defined (Meissner). This has given risen to the term “Gender Identity,” which is a “non-scientific, ideological term” (Meissner). Gender Identities have accumulated to 58 recognized by ABC news (Goldman). Gender Identity falls into the category of psychology as it is determined by the mind. The psychological aspect of gender has yet to be scientifically proven in humans, as with the example of Dr. Money. When a doctor attempted to change the behaviour of a male to become a female with nurture it failed miserably and has not been attempted since. The idea of Gender Identity has been linked with Gender Dysphoria, which is “strong, persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one's own assigned sex that results in significant distress or impairment” (Gender