Women Are Not Small Men — and It Matters for Our Health

As scientists learn more about human physiology and health, subtle differences between male and female bodies are coming to light. They can be vital … from treating pain and disease to the impact of lockdowns

How&Why

10 min read

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1 hour ago

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David Reimer’s story should be a lesson to overconfident social scientists everywhere.

He was born in 1965 in Canada as a biological male. Shortly after birth, he had a botched circumcision that destroyed his penis.

“No problem,” said John Money, a controversial psychologist-sexologist at Johns Hopkins University. “Raise him as a girl! Gender identity is mostly a social construct.”

Reimer had surgery to construct rudimentary female genitals, and was given female hormones during puberty. During childhood, he was never told he was biologically male, and was raised as ‘Brenda’.

He was severely distressed and bullied as a child, rejected the female identity as a young teenager, and began living as a male. He was enraged at the doctors who had interfered in his life and suffered from severe depression, culminating in suicide at 38. In his tragic and extreme story, nature beat nurture hands-down.