Violence

Murder

Weapons

The Labyrinth

Castration

Hormones

Madness

Mothering

Stereotypes

How to build a Man

Is it nature or nurture which most shapes gender identity? In Body of Glass, Wasp Factory and Patchwork Girl gender does appears to be socially constructed.

A real case of castration in early childhood.

Frank very readily adapted himself to herself and became Frances Lesley rather than Francis Leslie. In real life there is much more at stake than a simple name change.

In the 1960's working at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, John Money proclaimed that nurture was more important than nature in the development of gender identity. As a sexologist he had worked with a number of intersex individuals. He claimed that babies were born gender neutral and could thus be brought up as either sex.

Tragically he was offered the ideal subject on whom to experiment.

In 1966 an operation on eight month old Bruce Reimer went wrong. During what should have been a routine circumcision procedure the surgeon used an electric cauterizing machine in error, burning the penis so badly that it could not be saved.

Bruce's parents saw John Money on television and thought he was the answer to their prayers. Money claimed that gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy would transform Bruce into Brenda. Bruce had an identical twin, Brian so this would make an ideal study since Brian would be a natural control subject.

At 18 months Bruce received gender reassignment surgery: castration and the construction of a rudimentary vagina crease.

For some years John Money announced the success of the case of the twins in the media. 'Brenda' (called Joan in his reports) was photographed posing in frocks. Money saw both twins together for therapy sessions. 'David' as he later renamed himself, said that these sessions were torture. It was brainwashing, and that what was done to his mind was even worse than what was done to his body.

"I'd give just about anything to go to a hypnotist to black out my whole past. Because it's torture."

In adolescence when David was deeply depressed about his state his father finally told him the truth. He then began the process of being reassigned as male and became David. A double mastectomy was necessary as he had been treated with female hormones.

In 2004 David killed himself, two years after the suicide of his brother Brian. David was thirty eight.

It is impossible to say that the treatment of 'Brenda' represented anything like 'normal' socialization, for several reasons.

• Bruce was born a normal male and so would have been subjected to male hormones until he was castrated at 18 months old

• His parents knew he was supposed to be male.

• The surgery etc. would have been traumatic to all the family.

• The so called therapy was also traumatic (and could not be seen as a part of normal life).

• He was able to see his brother's toys and clothes which were more desirable than the dolls and dresses foisted on him.

• Other children did not recognize him as female (because he was not naturally feminine).

It is apparent that all the family were traumatized and that life would never be 'normal' for any of them.

As an experiment to establish the primacy of nurture over nature it was notably unsuccessful.