As Nature Made Him

Bruce Reimer is the older twin child of Janet and Ron Reimer. After a botched circumcision, Bruce’s penis burns irreparably, leaving him without genitalia. His young parents, saddened by the accident, raise him as a girl named Brenda.

Brenda does not take well to girlhood. She realizes, gradually, that “he was not a girl and never would be, no matter what his parents, his doctors, his teachers, or anyone else said” (93). Under the guidance of Dr. John Money, a famous child psychiatrist and sexologist, Brenda’s parents work hard to accustom her to the demands of girlhood. Brenda, eager to please, at times adopts these characteristics. But as puberty arrives, and especially as Dr. Money pushes surgery to construct a vagina for her, Brenda realizes that she cannot and will not live as a girl. After Brenda’s father, at the urging of her psychiatrist Dr. Mary McKenty, shares her origin story, Brenda officially shifts to living as David.

Brenda “made her transformation to David” as a teenager (253). The shift is “easier to accept” than many family and friends anticipated, though David struggles to go into public and experiences extreme depression as an older teenager. When confronted with the scientific community’s debate over his personhood, David agrees to work with Dr.