Comments on: The Boy Who Lived as a Girl

By: Pelle Billing

Pelle Billing — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:56:35 +0000

Christophe and David,

Yes, circumcision in itself is a very questionable practice in post-traditional societies. I’ll probably write about circumcision in my next post.

By: Pelle Billing

Pelle Billing — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:55:33 +0000

Danny:
When nature and nurture are at odds with each other and the person suffering this struggle does not get to resolve the conflict it seems to lead to problems.

Nicely summarized, I agree.

By: David

David — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

A gruesome story.

I think it’s an important thing to shed light on, Pelle. People are in kind of automatic pilot about this or swayed by some conditioned, aesthetic preference, unaware of the risks.

I read earlier that the risk of something like this is about one in a million. Long ago I read there were something like a handful of such cases in the United States each year. It’s not worth the risk.

More frequently it leads to complications. It’s just some ancient practice that continues because people don’t think deeply enough about it, don’t you think? I think it is changing slowly, though.

By: Danny

Danny — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:41:18 +0000

Adding this to how transsexual people often say how the gender they were raised as didn’t match the gender they really are (and change to) would lean to the conclusion that nature and nurture must be the same when it comes to gender identity. When nature and nurture are at odds with each other and the person suffering this struggle does not get to resolve the conflict it seems to lead to problems. But I don’t pretend to be an expert on these things.

By: Christophe

Christophe — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:40:30 +0000

Urrgh! A Circumsicion accident burnt his penis away? They raised him as a girl? What a freudian nightmare is this?!

Poor David Reimer’s story reminds me of Cal Stephanides, a fictional character in the novel “Middlesex” by american writer Jeffrey Eugenides (2002). It’s possible that Reimer’s case was an inspiration for the novelist.

However, “Middlesex” is a great read for anyone interested in prenatal hormonal programming of the human brain, 5-Alpha-Reductase-Hermaphroditis, the many troubles of adolescent first love, and eventually, the liberation of gender and human dignity.