In Other Words Women's Books & Resources

Description

In 1967, after a baby boy -- one of a set of identical twins -- suffered a botched circumcision, a radical treatment option was agreed to by his desperate and grieving family. Encouraged by renowned medical psychologist Dr. John Money, an expert in the field of gender identity and sexual reassignment, the anonymous child was surgically altered to live life as a girl. The case would prove to be precedent-setting, becoming "proof" for the feminist movement that gender gap was purely a result of cultural conditioning.

But all was not as it seemed. Initially proclaimed a resounding success, the devastating psychological cost of the procedure has only recently become known. Now living as an adult male, married and with a family of his own, this patient has granted John Colapinto unprecedented access to his story. As Nature Made Him is at once a fascinating exploration of the elusive nature of sexual identity and an examination of the ever-intensifying struggle between what medical science can do and what doctors should do. It is also a story of courage and survival that sheds light on the murkiest areas human sexuality.