The sexes are different; it's simple biology

The differences in the sexes do matter.

Date published: 2/13/2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE--Here is a true and horrifying story: In 1966, one infant in a set of identical male twins lost his penis in a botched circumcision. The parents consulted a Johns Hopkins University doctor, who recommended castration, construction of female genitalia, administration of female hormones, and raising the child as a girl. They followed this advice and renamed the child Brenda.

When Brenda was 12, her physician said she had adjusted well. Psychology and sociology texts, prominent feminists, and the media talked of the "opposite sex identical twins," one masculine and the other, Brenda, "remarkably feminine--neat and dainty." Her case was celebrated as evidence that sex roles are socially constructed.

These claims amounted to lies. Years later, a journalist found Brenda in Canada. Brenda had become a man, David, and was married to a woman. David had always acted like and wanted to be male and, at age 14, had started living as one. His parents had told him the truth when he was 15 and helped him get a mastectomy and male hormones.

Growing up as Brenda, he had ripped off the first dress put on him. When given a jump rope, he used it to tie people up

and whip them. He played with dump trucks and built forts, pretended to shave with his dad, and found the Rockettes sexy when at age 12 he saw them in New York. Brenda wanted to urinate standing up, and her elementary-school teachers remarked on her "pressing aggressive need to dominate."

The Brenda-David story ended horrifically. A couple of months ago, David committed suicide.

After the truth about Brenda surfaced, Johns Hopkins decided to look at 25 other males, ages 5 to 16, born without penises, castrated, and raised as girls. All loved rough-and-tumble play. Fourteen had declared themselves to be boys. Johns Hopkins found two males born without a penis but raised as boys. These two fit in well and were better adjusted than the others.

As sexual differentiation specialist Margaret Legato explains, testosterone in the womb makes a person think he is a male. It is useless to say to a child born a boy, "You are a girl."

This story reveals that getting nature/nurture answers wrong can be devastating. In fact, we are born masculine or feminine. Certain characteristics are largely built into us, not created by society or our families.

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Date published: 2/13/2005