John Colapinto has written for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Us Weekly, and Rolling Stone, where the landmark National Magazine Award-winning article that was the basis for As Nature Made Him first appeared. He is also the author of the novel About the Author. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.
A page-turning story of heroes and villains that stirs both
compassion and anger.--Philadelphia Inquirer
Colapinto, a writer of striking lucidity and compassion, inspired
the very private man who now proudly calls himself David to reveal
the entire story of his horrendous ordeal in hopes of preventing
others from suffering his fate. The result is an arresting and
invaluable narrative of personal tragedy, scientific arrogance, and
societal confusion over the source and significance of gender
differences.--Booklist
Colapinto's book is a stinging and overdue indictment of the
'sexual reassignment' of infants like baby Bruce and those born
with both male and female sex organs....The book also serves as an
intimate, heartbreaking diary of Bruce Brenda Reimer, the casualty
of a ghoulish science project gone terribly wrong.--Cleveland Plain
Dealer
For the most part, As Nature Made Him is a story of innocence
stolen, and of ill fate bravely born....But the book is also a
testament to the immutability of self. Because David in the end is
a triumph.--Dallas Morning News
In the end, what makes As Nature Made Him impossible to put down is
not the machinations of a misguided scientist but the suffering,
courage and ultimate triumph of a truly unfortunate
child.--Psychology Today
John Colapinto debunks Money's version of Brenda's childhood in his
fascinating, exhaustively researched As Nature Made Him. The result
is a detailed and riveting account.--Seattle Post Intelligencer
YA-A sorrowful account of a healthy male baby who, after suffering from a botched circumcision, was surgically altered and raised as a girl. Beyond that, it is the story of a psychologist from Johns Hopkins who would not see that the transsexual "remedy" was a grievous error since that admission meant the loss of the fame, power, and acceptance gained from his theories on gender identity. The book is in actuality a reporting of the facts of the case: the medical diagnosis; the surgery; the results; and the terrible effects the gender switch had on Bruce Reimer (soon to be Brenda), her twin, and their parents. By adolescence, despite hormone treatments, Brenda's misery was so complete that a switch back to the gender of birth was inescapable. Thus was David born. The tragedy of this family was compounded by the details of the famous Dr. Money's refusal to accept the failure of this treatment. One is forced to wonder how many other children who are afflicted with genital anomalies, whether from physician error or from a congenital defect, have suffered due to the ongoing nature versus nurture debate of scientists. This is a compelling story that will educate teens about some serious physical, psychological, and scientific issues. Because of interviews on television recently, David Reimer's story may already be familiar to many of them.-Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Forget sugar, spice, snails and puppy dog tails: discussions of how little boys and little girls are made have become quite complicated over the past three decades, as scientists, feminists and social theorists debate the relative impact of "nature" and "nurture" on gender and sexual identity. Focusing on the real-life story behind sexologist Dr. John Money's famous sexual reassignment case of 1965, Colapinto, an award-winning journalist, has penned a gripping medical melodrama. After Bruce Thiessen, one of two identical male twins, lost his penis during a botched circumcision, he underwent surgery that made him anatomically female, later received estrogen injections and was raised as a girl under Money's supervision at the Psychohormonal Research Unit at Johns Hopkins. All of Money's reports of the case--which quickly appeared in textbooks as a prime example of environment trumping biology--portrayed Bruce (now Brenda) as a well-adjusted girl, although the reality was quite different. Angry, sullen and having always insisted that "she" was a boy, Brenda finally decided at age 15--after "she" finally learned of the surgery-to revert to her original sex and take the name David. Drawing on extensive interviews with the Thiessen family, "Brenda"'s therapists and friends, Colapinto has written a wrenching personal narrative and a scathing indictment of Money's methods and theories, including instances of what Colapinto and David Thiessen see as extraordinarily invasive behavior and sexual abuse in his examinations of "Brenda" and her twin brother. Although Colapinto runs into trouble when he tries to generalize about nature vs. nurture from this single case, his book is illuminating, frightening and moving. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
A page-turning story of heroes and villains that stirs both
compassion and anger.--Philadelphia Inquirer
Colapinto, a writer of striking lucidity and compassion, inspired
the very private man who now proudly calls himself David to reveal
the entire story of his horrendous ordeal in hopes of preventing
others from suffering his fate. The result is an arresting and
invaluable narrative of personal tragedy, scientific arrogance, and
societal confusion over the source and significance of gender
differences.--Booklist
Colapinto's book is a stinging and overdue indictment of the
'sexual reassignment' of infants like baby Bruce and those born
with both male and female sex organs....The book also serves as an
intimate, heartbreaking diary of Bruce Brenda Reimer, the casualty
of a ghoulish science project gone terribly wrong.--Cleveland
Plain Dealer
For the most part, As Nature Made Him is a story of
innocence stolen, and of ill fate bravely born....But the book is
also a testament to the immutability of self. Because David in the
end is a triumph.--Dallas Morning News
In the end, what makes As Nature Made Him impossible to
put down is not the machinations of a misguided scientist but the
suffering, courage and ultimate triumph of a truly unfortunate
child.--Psychology Today
John Colapinto debunks Money's version of Brenda's childhood in his
fascinating, exhaustively researched As Nature Made Him.
The result is a detailed and riveting account.--Seattle Post
Intelligencer
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