Journalist John Colapinto on the Tragic Tale of David Reimer, The Boy Who Was Raised a Girl

Quillette Podcast

Quillette

Society & Culture, Politics, News, Science, News Commentary

4.6 • 917 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Quillette associate editor Iona Italia interviews journalist John Colapinto, whose book "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl" chronicles the life of David Reimer, a Canadian man who was born as Bruce Reimer and subjected to a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful gender-reassignment following a botched circumcision. The book delves into the psychological, ethical, and medical complexities of David's life, from the surgical accident and subsequent interventions to his struggle with his gender identity. It also serves as a critique of Dr. John Money's theories on gender plasticity and the ethics of imposing a gender identity on a child unable to provide informed consent. Colapinto interviews various people involved in the case, including David Reimer himself, his family, and professionals who later questioned Money's work. The book paints a detailed picture of the Reimer family's ordeal, David's internal struggles, and the professional controversies that the case stirred up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Quillett Podcast. I'm your host Jonathan Kay, a senior editor at
0:06.9	Quillett. Quillett is where free thought lives. We are an independent
0:10.8	grassroots platform for heterodox ideas and fearless commentary.
0:15.3	If you'd like to support the podcast, you can do so by going to quillet.com and becoming a paid subscriber.
0:21.9	This subscription will also give you access to all our
0:24.4	articles and early access to Colette social events.
0:29.6	Hello everyone. My guest today is the writer and journalist John Colopinto. He is the author of
0:37.4	five books I believe. Yes. Three non-fiction and two fiction books, two novels, about the author which I've read, which is a
0:46.2	rollicking tale of plagiarism, and three non-fiction books, the voice which I've also read, which is about the human vocal
0:55.8	course and also becoming a neurosurgeon.
0:59.3	And it's the third book that we're going to talk about today. It's called As Nature Made Him. And it's the story of
1:08.9	David Reimer, who was after a botched circumcision, severely damaged his penis, he was brought up as a girl.
1:18.9	And we're going to be talking about that story in more detail in a second. But I'll begin by reading you a short passage from the book.
1:27.0	It was like brainwashing, he was saying, as he lit the first in an unbroken chain of cigarettes. I'd give just about anything to go to a
1:35.6	hypnotist to black out my whole past because it's torture. What they did you in the body is sometimes
1:41.8	not near as bad as what they did to you in the mind
1:45.0	with a psychological warfare in your head.
1:48.0	He was referring to the events that had begun to unfold on an April morning three decades earlier, when at eight months of age he lost
1:56.1	his entire penis to a botched circumcision.
1:59.1	As a result of that irreparable injury, his parents had taken him to see a famed expert in sex research
2:05.9	at the renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore where they were convinced to submit
2:10.6	their son to a surgical sex change. The process involved clinical
	...

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