Discordant Sexual Identity

Question: Discuss about the Discordant Sexual Identity. Answer: Introduction: Janet Reimer, mother of Bruce was extremely disturbed after the accident where the doctors tried to use an unusual method for circumcision to solve the urinating problems that the twins had been experiencing. The worriedness drove Janet to and her husband to consult various specialists but in vain. Janet was finding it difficult to cope up with the mishap of the mutilation of her sons genitalia, however, after watching Dr Moneys interview, she found a ray of hope and thought of giving this a chance as well as she had nothing to lose now. Going by the global research, the popular belief pertaining to the gender identity was that a persons distinctive qualities can only be decided through the biological mechanisms they possess. This was popularly known as the nature theory Nurture can override nature in the sense that, the way a person is brought up, taking in account the environment he/ she is raised in, can have a direct impact on his/ her innate distinctive qualities as a person. It simply tells us that a child is likely to behave in a way which is taught to him and has been exposed to throughout his life, which in turn can also go against the gender identity one has. Dr Money along with his team came up with the nurture theory where a childs gender identity can be heavily influenced by the societal conditions in which the child lives. Dr Money and his found Bruce to be perfect for their trials of this theory. According to Dr Money, the newborns are psychosexually neutral at birth, as they do not possess the power to identify in order to decide their gender. Only after being exposed in the society does the child realizes his gender identity and learns how to behave and identify oneself. The theory of neutrality suggests that at the initial level most of the evolutionary changes and most of the differences occurring in between the species is not an outcome of the natural selection but is the result of genetic drift of mutant alleles that are neutral. When a child is roughly about nine years old, a brain can be said to be unmalleable. The genital surgery did bring about momentary relief to Bruces parents as they now thought they would raise her like Brenda a proper female, which eventually misfired. Hadnt the surgery taken place, it would initially be difficult for Bruce to cope up with the reality or be normal in the eyes of the world but eventually he would be able to adapt to this situation. Paradoxically, nurture theory could have definitely been of some use here. The family had to go through a rough patch while dealing with Brenda. Brenda defied all the treatments put on her for being ladylike and gentle. She would try to imitate her fathers behavior, however be neat in her habits. On insisting on another surgery, Brenda strongly retaliated and showed suicidal instincts. Eventually Brenda became unmanageable and destructive. The discovery of Professor Dick Swaab was many theories based on the impact of brain development in the womb. In 1990, Professor Swaab and his team, tried to analyze and study the different parts of brain of transsexuals and compared them with male and female brains. After a lot of hard work, they found that a small portion near the hypothalamus of the bain of transsexuals bore similarity with those of female brains suggesting that the brain had a constructive role in determining the gender of the baby. When Bruce was tracked down in 1995, it was seen that Bruce tried to lead a normal life. He got married and was sharing healthy relationships with his wife; however amidst all this he was quite unhappy. He had already conceived the fact that his life is ruined and he hoped to find a ray of light in his life soon. During her teenage years, Brenda had to overcome many suicidal tendencies that were building up in her. The truth was divulged to her during these years and it was then when she decided to live her life like a boy, she named herself David, cut her hair short, and reaffirmed his physical traits of his masculine identity. He further underwent a double mastectomy to get back his masculine features. If seen from Bruces point of view, his story was not a success story for him. His reaction was very blatant and was very upset with how the things had worked out with him, because in the end the outcome was not beneficial and he suffered almost all his life owing to the test done on him. According to Dr Money, Bruces case did not work out very well because: It was first of a kind, more of a trial and error where it was important to asses and observes the outcome on the person. Moreover,Bruce was more of deviant child. A study put forth by Travis Hirschi tells us that special control is dependent on those individuals who are anticipating their consequence of behavior and in this case, Bruce wanted to defy the general norms laid on him and decided to live on his basic instincts unaffected by the external environment Lastly he proposed the fact that if the operation had been performed earlier, i.e. after the birth itself, chances were that the gender reassignment could have worked better. The operation was performed when Bruce was already around two years old which is quite a long time. Questions that now came up could be how successful are these intersex surgeries in the long run? Would the social life have a major role to play in these surgeries? How deep would the psychological impact of the surgery be on the person? Recent studies conducted shows us that gender identity and the effect hormones have on them still remains quite unclear. Studies have been conducted on laboratory animals where the sexual action of an adult is based on his exposure to the hormones during fetal or rather postnatal development. Neutral theory is considered essential because it is considered as the base of selection tests. Neutrality as helps us to account for the molecular processes involved in the functioning of the genome. Also, neutrality and its theory can now help in phenotypic evolution and to species adaptation. At the end, David Reimer, aka Bruce aka Brenda dies a tragic death after committing suicide in 2004. He was had been suffering from chronic depression leading him to take away his own life. References Schillo, K. K. (2011). Nature or Nurture: The Case of the Boy Who Became a Girl. Colapinto, J. (2004). Gender gapwhat were the real reasons behind David Reimers suicide. com, 06-03. Reimer, D. Five Landmark Psychology Case Studies You Should Know About. Reiner, W. G., Gearhart, J. P. (2004). Discordant sexual identity in some genetic males with cloacal exstrophy assigned to female sex at birth.New England Journal of Medicine,350(4), 333-341.