Dr Money- David Reimer -Albatio Penis 1975
- Created by: rebeccahankinson
- Created on: 04-04-15 16:37
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- Dr Money- David Reimer -Albatio Penis 1975
- AIM
- To investigate the theory of gender neutrality
- PROCEDURE
- Overall, there were 45 cases studied, but one case study in particular is looked at here. Each case studied a genetic male reassigned and brought up as females: 43 had defective penises, the other 2 had ablatio penis
- At seven months old, one of two identical twins suffered what was called a circumcision,, and the
current was too strong, causing his penis to become ablated. Surgeons offered the
solution: sexually reassign him to a female. Not sure what to do, his parents left it, until seeing Money on a TV
programme, discussing what he considered to be the success of male-to-female transsexual operations.
- Bruce’s parents went to Money and asked him to help them bring Bruce up as a girl successfully. At 17 months old, Bruce was gender-reassigned, and became Brenda
- Brenda was given this new name, as well as new hair, new toys, new clothing… whatever would help. Money assured the parents that (based on the success of adult operations) Brenda would become a girl and would conform to the gender she had been brought up as. Money instructed the parents what to tell friends and family, as well as the other twin brother, about the situation.
- At age 4, Brenda was said to be neater
than the other brother, which Money considered a sign of potential future success, due to her feminine toys, hair,
clothes and style of upbringing. The children began to copy the image of their same-sex parent, and Brenda
wanted dolls to play with, whereas her brother wanted cars.
- However, Brenda was tomboyish also, with abundant physical energy, stubbornness and being the dominant in an all-girl group. The mother tried her best to make Brenda become more lady-like. She was the more dominant sibling of the two twins.
- EVALUATION
- + There was a lot of detail taken about Brenda, such as her likes and dislikes, which could be related to the progress of the study – these were controlled carefully by Money
- + These could be compared to her brother Brian, which provided qualitative data, which is much more valuable as it is more valid than quantitative
- + More than one person contributed to the data – both Money and the parents observed the children
- - The study was 9 years long and Money concluded it a success but it was later revealed by Reimer that he was never happy as a girl, which is shown by the fact he later changed back to a male, therefore there is no validity
- - It is hard to generalise these findings as this is a very unique case study – the ablatio penis study is rare enough, but also having an identical twin brother as well as willing-to-be-studied parents
- AIM
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