From Sex to Humanity: How to be Human - A Guide in Two Parts (Part 1)

Soon after he had been born in August 1965, a botched circumcision left him with no penis. His parents sought advice from medical psychologist John Money. Money was a respected, if controversial, sex researcher who was convinced that sexuality was entrained by a person’s environment, and believed that if this little boy was surgically turned into a girl and raised as a girl, then he would adapt perfectly and develop a female sexual identity. The theory grew from Freud’s insistence that male identity developed as a boy learnt about his penis – remove the penis and ‘he’ would grow happily as a ‘she’.

His parents eventually agreed to the surgery and the boy was castrated in the summer of 1967. For years Money heralded the ‘success’ of this case as an example that sexuality is learnt and wrote and spoke about how well the child had adopted his given sex. David, however, felt different. Unaware of the surgical origins of his physique, he was fully aware that he didn’t like being a girl. And at the point he planned to take his life, aged 14, David’s parents spilt the beans.

Further operations and hormone treatment have wiped out the female aspects of David’s reconstructed body, returned much of his maleness and restored his understanding of who he is. Far from proving that sexual identity is something we add as we grow, David’s life shows the way that it is a powerful influence right in the centre of our being. It would seem that sexuality depends less on the genitals, and more on the brain.

Embodied

Courtesy of Arthur White - Reproduced with permission of Wileys Arthur White

Living out our sexual identity also influences the way we treat our bodies, and that in turn can affect the rest of our lives. Arthur White is a power lifter - in fact he is not just any old power lifter; he has won numerous international competitions and in 2002 became the world champion. Aged 51 he was old enough to be the father of some of the other competitors.

Arthur is a prime example of someone whose body has influenced his life. As a teenager he learnt two things fast. The first was that when the meiotic lottery dealt out his set of genes he landed up with tougher tendons than most people and the ability to build stronger muscles than anyone else he came across. He also found if he put the time into pumping steel in a gym he could hone his body until it not only worked well, it also looked good.