Bruce Brenda e David è un libro importante che, dopo l’articolo uscito per Rolling Stone sempre a opera di John Colapinto, mirava a rendere noto al grande pubblico una delle conseguenze più drammatiche della teoria della neutralità di genere, sviluppata da John Money.

Questa teoria, ormai dimostrata erronea, sosteneva che l’identità di genere dipendeva dal contesto sociale nel quale è immerso un soggetto e quindi, se si interveniva entro finestre temporali ben precise, poteva essere cambiata a piacimento a colpi di imposizioni, interventi chirurgici e ormoni

Già a leggerla così oggi ci fa rabbrividire e saperla messa in pratica su David (e altr* bambin* come lui o intersessuali), già vittima di un’inutile circoncisione finita male per un errore medico, è raccapricciante, soprattutto se consideriamo che c’erano già delle perplessità sulla veridicità di questa teoria e sul suo rispetto del metodo scientifico. In questo senso, Bruce Brenda e David è un libro importante e vorrei che diffondesse il più possibile la storia di David.

Tuttavia, non mi sento di consigliarne la lettura a chiunque perché a più riprese nel corso del libro si fa confusione tra identità di genere, sesso, ruoli e espressioni di genere e addirittura orientamenti sessuali. È una confusione che è dovuta al fatto che la vicenda di David inizia negli anni Sessanta, quando non si facevano questo tipo di distinzioni (perlomeno, non nel modo in cui le percepiamo noi oggi) e che potrebbe confondere chi legge se non ha ben chiaro cosa si intenda adesso per identità di genere, sesso, e via dicendo.

Purtroppo Colapinto non affianca alla mole di documenti, trascrizioni e interviste citate una lettura critica di quanto vi viene detto (se non un evidente, ma alquanto generico, “la teoria di Money non stava funzionando”). Non è stata del tutto colpa di Colapinto, visto che il libro è uscito nel 2000, in un momento in cui la scienza medica stava abbandonando la teoria di Money e si stava incamminando nella direzione che ci ha portato dove siamo oggi e che può essere riassunta dall’affermazione del dottor Reiner citata nell’ultimo capitolo di Bruce Brenda e David: «il più importante organo sessuale non sono i genitali; è il cervello».

Credo che questa confusione sia anche il motivo per il quale Bruce Brenda e David è arrivato in Italia grazie a Edizioni San Paolo: è facile vedere in questo libro ciò che non dice, cioè che l’identità di genere assegnata alla nascita è indubbiamente quella corretta. Purtroppo per le persone fanatiche, esistono anche individui intersessuali e transgender e impuntarsi a costringerli nel genere che voi pensate sia quello giusto significa perpetrare la stessa violenza che Money e il suo staff hanno imposto a David.

Quindi, se avete intenzione di leggere questo libro (che comunque rimane un’importante testimonianza dei drammi ai quali si può andare incontro quando si sacrificano metodo scientifico e interesse per il benessere delle persone all’altare del proprio ego), vi consiglio di maneggiarlo con cura, approcciandovi ad esso con una buona conoscenza delle questioni inerenti all’identità di genere. ( )

this is actually quite interesting. i had kind of expected this to be an early story of a transgender man (this first was published in 1999) but that's not at all what it was. it was the story of a boy baby whose penis was traumatically injured (mostly lost) during a catastrophic circumcision operation at 8 months old, and so was castrated and raised as a girl. it was the late 60's and was established medical practice until the mid 90's to reassign gender to medical cases like these (which are far more common than you might think) and to intersex infants.

this was both the story of david's life, his childhood where everyone tried to force him to be a girl, and of the medical side of this story. of the perfect experiment because david was an identical twin, and his brother was not put through the operation, botched or otherwise. of this doctor that was so driven to prove that hormones don't matter in gender determination, that he was unable to accept any data (or any people) who didn't fit his scientific theory. this doctor was the father of sex and gender study and could have done so much for the field, and instead has a legacy of trauma and surgical intervention that ruined so many lives.

both david's story and the medical story are interesting. because the book tries to cover them both, though, neither are fully addressed in a way that is entirely satisfying for the reader. we don't really hear what it's like for david or his family. we see that his mom is depressed, that his dad is an alcoholic, that his twin brother was in trouble with the law and in school, that both kids were put through psychological abuse (and worse) at the hands of the doctors. but we don't hear what they were going through. what it was like to make the decision to reassign their baby's gender. to see him grow up, as a girl, and obviously unhappy in that role. to come to question their decision and their role in their child's unhappiness.

there are many holes, and lots of unanswered questions, because the author is trying to do so much. and he does it well, although there is a strange commitment to using female pronouns and a female name for the period of life that david lived as a girl, so a sentence could read: "david remembers an incident when she was seven." it felt a little disrespectful, although i know he wasn't trying to be. anyway, this is definitely interesting, and a terrible story of what the medical profession perpetuated on so many children for so long. ( )

If this book doesn't make you angry at what this family - and most importantly that boy forced to live as a girl - went through, you didn't read it right. A startling effective account of a true story that should not be forgotten. ( )

Subtitle: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl

From the book jacket: In 1967, after a baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment. On the advice of a renowned expert in gender identity and sexual reassignment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the boy was surgically altered to live as a girl. This landmark case, initially reported to be a complete success, seemed all the more remarkable since the child had been born an identical twin: his uninjured brother, raised as a boy, provided to the experiment the perfect matched control.

My reactions
This made me so angry! It’s been a week since I finished it and I thought I had calmed down, but just typing that synopsis from the book jacket stirred those embers in me. The unmitigated arrogance and superior attitude of Dr John Money made me want to hunt him down and do an experiment on HIM! (But he died in 2006…)

In writing the book, Colapinto did an excellent job of researching the various players in this tragedy. He provides considerable background on the development of sexual/gender identity theory, including interviews with many researchers and reporting from numerous professional journals. He gained the trust of David Reimer, his parents and brother and had extensive interviews with them, as well as with childhood friends, teachers and physicians who treated the boys. I think the book is balanced and truthful. I applaud David Reimer for the way he manages to survive the horror that was his childhood.

(Note: I could not help but look up the case on the internet, which is how I discovered that Money died in 2006, but also learned that both David and his brother committed suicide.) ( )

In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine—and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's—and one family's—amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.