Synopses & Reviews
One of the twentieth centuryand#8217;s most controversial sexologistsand#151;or and#147;fuckologists,and#8221; to use his own memorable termand#151;John Money was considered a trailblazing scientist and sexual libertarian by some, but damned by others as a fraud and a pervert. and#160;Money invented the concept of gender in the 1950s, yet fought its uptake by feminists. He backed surgical treatments for transsexuality, but argued that gender roles were set by reproductive capacity. He shaped the treatment of intersex, advocating experimental sex changes for children with ambiguous genitalia. He pioneered drug therapy for sex offenders, yet took an ambivalent stance towards pedophilia.and#160;In his most publicized case study, Money oversaw the reassignment of David Reimer as female following a circumcision accident in infancy. Heralded by many as proof that gender is pliable, the case was later discredited when Reimer revealed that he had lived as a male since his early teens.
Inand#160;Fuckology, the authors contextualize and interrogate Money's writings and practices. The book focuses on his three key diagnostic concepts, and#147;hermaphroditism,and#8221; and#147;transsexualism,and#8221; and and#147;paraphilia,and#8221; but also addresses his lesser-known work on topics ranging from animal behavior to the philosophy of science. The result is a comprehensive collection of new insights for researchers and students within cultural, historical, and gender studies, as well as for practitioners and activists in sexology, psychology, and patient rights.
Review
and#8220;We see here critical sexuality studies confronting the work of the most influential of modern sexologists, John Money. The point is not to dismiss sexology and#8211; that has been done too often and too quickly in queer studies and#8211; but to engage with it in a sustained, scholarly manner. Downing, Morland, and Sullivan do that admirably, identifying the casual contradictions and unpacking the constitutive tensions in Moneyand#8217;s thinking.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;John Money's influential and controversial career has never received the careful, critical, and nuanced attention it deservesand#8212;until now. Coauthors Downing, Morland, and Sullivan bring three very different forms of expertise to bear on Money's work and its legacy, in a study that should be of interest to scholars of medicine and sexuality alike.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;One of the most prominent and prolific sexologists of the second half of the twentieth century, John Money coined the term and#8220;genderand#8221; and pioneered the use of surgical procedures to treat intersex and transgender subjects.and#160; In this timely and important critical reassessment of Moneyand#8217;s work, Downing, Morland, and Sullivan lay bare the inconsistencies and assumptions embedded in his conceptualisation of sex.and#160; The title of the book derives from Moneyand#8217;s own term for his particular brand of sexology while also, as the authors astutely point out, providing the critical tools with which to fuck with sexology itself.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This book makes a unique and exciting contribution to the field, examining in detail Money's work on the concepts of and#8216;hermaphroditismand#8217;, and#8216;transsexualismand#8217;, and and#8216;paraphilia.and#8217; It is a well-founded critique that goes to the heart of sexological research methodology and its underpinning assumptions. This work is queer, critical, historically astute, and politically engagedand#8212;offering an analysis that many of us have been looking forward to, and that will certainly contribute to our work.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;In Fuckology, Downing and co-authors capture Moneyandrsquo;s story ably.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Downing, Morland, and Sullivan provide a critical exposition of John Moneyandrsquo;s extensive oeuvre, introducing original, and illuminative debates regarding the historical context and intellectual stimuli behind his work whilst conjointlyandmdash;in their own wordsandmdash;andlsquo;fucking withandrsquo; Moneyandrsquo;s frequently destructive dogma. . . . The authors competently elucidate the nuances of Moneyandrsquo;s expansive and controversial career and make use of the andlsquo;plasticityandrsquo; of his arguments to narrativise conflicts which were fundamental to his, and othersandrsquo;, conceptualizations of the moral, humanist, and medical implications of coining diagnostic concepts relating to sex, as well as the resulting implementation of behavioral, juridical, and surgical responses. This will be hugely beneficial to scholars of medicine and further afield, medical practitioners, and to academics and postgraduates with interests in gender, sex and sexuality.andrdquo;
Synopsis
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"We should aspire to Colapinto's stellar journalist example: listening carefully to the circumstances of those who are different rather than demanding that they conform to our own." --Washington Post
The true story about the "twins case" and a riveting exploration of medical arrogance, misguided science, societal confusion, gender differences, and one man's ultimate triumph
In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine--and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama if one man's--and one family's--amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.
Synopsis
In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine—and a total failure. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's—and one family's—amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.
Synopsis
Now in paperback comes the bestselling account of the now-famous "twins" case that became a touchstone in the debates on gender identity and nature versus nurture. "Riveting, cleanly written, and brilliantly researched".--"New York Times Book Review". Photos.
Synopsis
Thereand#8217;s a missing chapter in the history of sexuality/sexology, gender, and the body.and#160; Books abound about the early years (1880-1920) and about recent debates, but Fuckology is a vitally important contribution to this history viewed from the mid-20th-century.and#160; John Money pursued a storied (and flamingly controversial) career at Johns Hopkins, where he was professor of pediatrics and medical psychology.and#160; He invented the concept of and#147;gender,and#8221; and did a lot of clinical research on intersex (hermaphroditism) and sex reassignment surgery.and#160; He wrote 50 books and 500 articles.and#160; He is viewed as a monster or a god, a devil or a saint, depending on whoand#8217;s talking.and#160; (A baby boy named David Reimer was victim of a circumcision accident; Money advised the parents to have the babyand#8217;s sex reassigned by removing his testes and injecting hormones, thus demonstrating that nurture, not nature, explained a purported new identity as a girl named and#147;Brenda,and#8221; but in fact David never accepted the identity, and later committed suicide, as did his twin brother.and#160; Downing, Morland, and Sullivan do not address the Reimer case as biography or history, but only as one example of Moneyand#8217;s theories, one of which was that gender and genitals are malleable in infancy.)and#160; Money was heavily invested in the principle of scientificity, giving names to all manner of perversions and medical termsand#151;and#147;normophilia,and#8221; and#147;eonistic transsexualism,and#8221; and#147;diecious,and#8221; and#147;paraphilia,and#8221; etc.and#151;and christening the field he worked in, the field of sex research, as and#147;fuckology.and#8221;and#160;and#160; And thus our book title.and#160; The authors trace the influence on Money of Alfred Adlerand#8217;s psychology, scientific theories that reject race as a given, medical recognitions of transsexuality,and#160; along with cybernetics, brain organization theory, and so on.and#160;and#160; Itand#8217;s not possible to understand ideas of sexuality, gender, and the body at mid-century without a close focus on Moneyand#8217;s work.and#160; The authors demonstrate how interdisciplinary Moneyand#8217;s ideas and practices were, and design their own work here to transfer knowledge and understanding from the critical humanities to policymakers in the medical, cultural, and legal spheres.and#160; In addition to academic audiencesand#151;which includes scholars of bioethics, biology, critical medical studies, neuroethics, gender and trans studies, and more--this book will appeal to practicing clinicians and sexologists and activists in sexuality and patient rights.
About the Author
Lisa Downing is professor of French discourses of sexuality at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. She is the author of numerous books including Desiring the Dead: Necrophilia and Nineteenth-Century French Literature, The Cambridge Introduction to Michel Foucault, and coauthor of Film and Ethics: Foreclosed Encounters.Iain Morland
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: On the and#147;Duke of Dysfunctionand#8221;
Part 1 Mapping
1 The Matter of Gender
Nikki Sullivan
2 A Disavowed Inheritance: Nineteenth-Century Perversion Theory and John Moneyand#8217;s and#147;Paraphiliaand#8221;
Lisa Downing
3 Gender, Genitals, and the Meaning of Being Human
Iain Morland
Part 2 Vandalizing
4 Cybernetic Sexology
Iain Morland
5 Reorienting Transsexualism: From Brain Organization Theory to Phenomenology
Nikki Sullivan
6 and#147;Citizen-Paraphiliacand#8221;: Normophilia and Biophilia in John Moneyand#8217;s Sexology
Lisa Downing
Conclusion: Off the Map
Index