Gender neutrality?

In this post i will touch on the case of gender neutrality. Born as a male identical twin of the Reimer family, David suffered a cruel fate and was brought up as a girl under the influence of psychologist John Money. The twin brothers were referred for circumcision at the age of 8 months but the procedure did not go as planned and David has his penis burned beyond surgical repair with technology at that point of time. David’s parents then sort out other alternatives and seek the help of John Money, a psychologist who was developing a reputation as a pioneer in the field of sexual development and gender identity. Money was a prominent proponent of the ‘theory of gender neutrality’, that gender identity developed primarily as a result of social learning from early childhood. If the life of Reimer has turned out as planned by Money, perhaps that would have marked a milestone in the long debated issue of Mars vs. Venus, but that is not the case as David grew up shunning his female self.

Below are the links for footage on David Reimer, broken into 5 parts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GhbVFjIaN0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noqRhuE8_XA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ctg3poxT9g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnb3EwJtsDs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OeITsQgKns&feature=related

Growing up, David was ostracized by his peers and neither the female hormones nor upbringing made him feel female. By the age of 13, he was already suffering from suicidal depression, which in turn his parents told him the truth about his sexual identity. At 14, David decided to assume a male identity and eventually got married and became a stepfather of three.

What made this case even more detrimental to the social constructivist’s view is that even under the influence David was different from his twin brother because they had different genitals; he still manages to keep his real sexual identity under check. Even with the lack of testosterone and social concept of a ‘male’ upbringing, it could not overcome the fundamental fact that David was born with a male identity.

Due to the nature of this case, there is only one such example and might not be enough to convince that gender differences are determined the moment one was born. Statisticians might argue that one scenario cannot account for why gender differences lies deep within the biological cells. But statistics only deals with number, and cannot account for particular linguistic feature. The case of David Reimer, in my opinion, has affirmed my stand that gender miscommunications exist because of the fundamental differences of gender and not because of social influence.