#DavidReimer

[timmyturneur]

Evidently, there is some indiscernible power under which human beings are defined and which, despite vehement efforts to render this power illegitimate by those dehumanized by it, continues to force into question the concept of “self” and whether or not one’s perception of one’s self can exist simultaneously with the status quo. “What, given the contemporary order of being, can I be?” Judith Butler asks in "Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transsexuality.” Contemporary notions of gender, that is what society constitutes as male or female, lead us to determine the levels of humanity in others as well as in ourselves, she argues. Whether that is just or unjust is left for the reader to decide. However, one thing is certain, as she explains, “justice” concerns the treatment of others but not without the “allocation of personhood” and what “social norms must be honored and expressed” for personhood to be recognized in another. Because of what she calls “presuppositional norms,” i.e. gender norms that have already been arranged for you before you are even born and which define your humanity, your right to exist as a human being, that is with all of the flaws and shortcomings, is compromised not by the circumstances of your existence but by the power dynamics that dominate society today. We are dominated by the notion that you cannot be human, much less comfortably so, unless you can be classified, insomuch as you classify yourself, as male or female. 

Enter David Reimer (pictured above). 

In the case of this particular individual we are confronted with the dichotomy between what one is born as and what society perceives you to be. After a surgical procedure gone wrong where Reimer’s penis was severely burned beyond repair, his parents chose to raise him as a girl named Brenda in order to more easily integrate him into society as a “normal” person. As Brenda gets older, however, she decides that she feels more male than female and thus chooses to undergo an operation where she receives a phallus and is renamed David. 

What is interesting about this case is David’s inadvertent effort to change the status quo. By defining his worth as a human being irrespective of society’s labelling of him based on his genitals, he proves that an individual can still be an intelligible human regardless of his confused gender identity; that deviance from the norm is not deviance from humanity. “... He has not become one with the norm, and yet he is still someone, speaking, insisting, even referring to himself,” Butler says. Normalization versus nature is the current struggle that threatens to make or break the relationship between individual and society. One can adhere to societal norms and work their appearance to make it easier for society to place them as male or female in an effort to live more comfortably, or rather, one can learn to be content with themselves on their own terms and adhere to the spectrum that gender identity naturally falls under. Unfortunately, the latter proves everyday the effort of society to marginalize what they cannot perceive as intelligibly human, not by fault of it’s own, Butler would probably argue, but rather by fault of those presupposed notions imposed by an unrelenting power structure that seeks to maintain the status quo. To live as one sees fit to live as, or to live as one is told one ought to live, that is the question.

[psikologrehber]

David Reimer Deneyi

1966 yılnda, 8 aylık olan David Reimer'ın sünnet operasyonu son derece başarısız olmuş ve penisini kaybetmesine sebep olmuştu. Psikolog John Money, David’in cinsiyet değiştirmesini önerdi. Ebeveynleri de bu konuda hemfikir oldu, ancak Money ve ailesi, gizli bir şekilde yürütülen, "cinsiyet kimliğinin doğuştan değil, çevre ile şekillendiği" iddiasını kanıtlamak için hazırlanmış bir deneyin parçası olduklarını bilmiyorlardı. David, adını Brenda olarak değiştirdi, cerrahi bir operasyonla bir vajinası oldu ve hormon desteği aldı. Fakat “Brenda”, çocukluğu süresince standart bir erkek çocuk gibi davrandı. Reimer ailesi, Brenda 14 yaşına geldiğinde yaşadıkları sıkıntıya dayanamayıp, Brenda'ya gerçeği söylediler ve tekrar David’e dönmesi konusunda karar aldılar. Fakat deney trajik bir şekilde sonuçlandı ve David 38 yaşında intihar etti. Read the full article

[rosie-love98]

THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T PLAY GOD WITH CHILDREN!!!!

[dj-mickey-d]

CS Edit02 2-1080p from davidreimers on Vimeo.

[tenai98-blog]

Reflection Two, “Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transsexuality”

Gender is the cultural meaning we attach to our biological sex which is not always true. Judith Butler argues that “Gender reality is performative which means quite simply that it is real only to the extent that it is performed”. Which entails that gender is wider than just a biological state but is something that will also be acted upon as expression. While reading this article I could not help but to become sympathetic towards David Reimer. He endured such a catastrophic event that tormented his ability of free will and self expression. David Reimer is widely known through the Joan/John case. At such a young age David was stripped of his true identity when a botched operation took place. Evidently in a sense David became a lab rat for a scientific study. Each time I read this article I can’t help but to blame both Dr.Money and his parents for not actually thinking through the affects this may have caused for him in the long run. The fact that his opposite gender was forced upon him for so many years although he was uncomfortable with himself sickens me, he did not understand what was going on and why he went through what he did even though none of it was at his fault. “The very criterion by which we judge a person to be a gendered being, a criterion that posits coherent gender as a presupposition of humanness, is not only one which, justly or unjustly, governs the recognizability of the human, but one that informs the ways we do or do not recognize ourselves at the level of feeling, desire, and the body, at the moments before the mirror, in the moments before the window, in the times that one turns to psychologists, to psychiatrists, to medical and legal professionals to negotiate what may well feel like the unrecognizability of one’s gender and, hence, the unrecognizability of one’s personhood” Dr. Money manipulated David’s family and their situation to benefit his unethical theories. This article helped me realize that gender is more than “biological” and social normality but that sex is considered an ascribed status and gender is an achieved status. People don’t always necessarily identify for what may be “biologically” written for them although in this case David did. All in all, you can not force someone to act upon what they do not rightfully identify their self as because society does not deem it as “normal”. It’s not right to try to impose someone to configure their way of life. It’s heartbreaking that David’s life did not have a better outcome.

[dj-mickey-d]

LA VIDA LOW Teaser 2 - Lowrider Documentary from davidreimers on Vimeo.

Here is the second teaser for La Vida Low - my upcoming lowrider documentary. From the streets of California to the backyards and garages, La Vida Low is hitting switches with people from all walks of life. The likes of Joe Ray, chief editor of Lowrider Magazine and Lifestyle CC president, and Kita Lealao, USO CC president talk about their passion, lifestyle and religion. Stay tuned for more teasers and keep it low and slow.

La Vida Low - Rollin' till the wheels fall off