Blog Post #2: Fausto-Sterling

Dr. Money's claim that men are made not born and that "gender was merely a matter of body image and upbringing" was challenged by Dr. Milton Diamond and Keith Sigmundson.  Dr. Money had given reconstructive genital surgery to a boy who suffered a circumcision accident at the age of eight months and thought he was successful in turning the boy into a girl.  However, in his thirties, Dr. Diamond and Sigmundson interviewed his patient who confessed that he was not happy about her female identity. 

This goes to show that no body can challenge nature.  If a baby is born a male, no matter what doctors will do to change his gender, his male genes cannot completely disappear.  In the same manner, if a baby is born female, no matter what reconstructive genital surgery she undergoes to change her gender, her female hormones cannot completely disappear. 

As Fausto-Sterling said, "Genetic females should always be raised as females, preserving reproductive potential, regardless of how severely the patients are virilized."  Fausto also went on to say that only a few reports on penile size at birth exist in the scientific literature and that the size of the penis at birth is "not a good indicator of size and function at puberty."  This is because there are babies born with very tiny penis, but grow up regaining the full size of the penis.  If for some reason, this baby undergoes reconstructive surgery at birth, he will definitely grow up as a bitter person and will never be happy. 

The conclusion I am making is that men are born, not made.