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[Hugo]

See some people on the gay marriage issue arguing there is no fundamental difference between males and females, besides the genitalia.

From www.hisside.com

The little boy that Bruce Reimer was never had a chance. As an adult, he chose suicide on May 4 rather than live in unbearable torment. Underlying his death is a theory that still impacts children across North America: that sexual identity comes from nurture not nature and, so, can be entirely determined by proper social conditioning

Actually I had just finished reading the book documenting the tragic upbringing of Bruce/Brenda/David. After a circumcision gone wrong (the penis was basically burned to a crisp) it was decided that Bruce should be renamed Brenda and raised as a female. The parents were led to believe, by Dr. Money, a popular feminist theory, that it was nurture, not nature, that accounted for the behavioral differences between males and females. Bruce/Brenda/David was a guinea pig to test this assertion. Despite attempts to train "Brenda" to be a girl she resisted almost from the beginning of her "training" and became worse as she approached adolescence. Eventually Brenda was told of the facts of her case and chose to revert to living as a male and chose the name David.

The book was written about 5 years ago. I just discovered David had committed suicide when researching for this post. Clearly David never recovered from the damage inflicted on him by a medical theory.

The questions

How much of gender roles are based on nature vs. nurture?

Does the previous question matter in the struggle for gender equality?

This post has been edited by Hugo: Jan 5 2005, 09:11 PM