Gender Identity Essay
Explore Gender Identity in greater depth.
First, watch the film Sex: Unknown in entirety (Nova, 2001; we watched clips in class). You can borrow it from the Media Library on campus. Netflix does not have the film, but you can watch it in parts online on Youtube. The first part is here:
Here is a companion website to the film:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/gender/
Here is a story written by John Colapinto (Author of the original book) about David Reimer’s death.
http://www.slate.com/id/2101678/
In an essay, discuss your views on gender and gender identity. Is there such a thing as a “disturbed” “disordered” or “deviant” gender identity? Where does gender identity come from?
John Money claimed that his experiment was a “failure” because David Reimer was almost 2 years old when he was reassigned as female, and had already formed a partially male identity. What do you think of this rationale?
What would you do if you had a child born with ambiguous genitals?
