Omar Rodriguez

Film Analysis
I did my film analysis on Dr. Money And The Boy With No Penis. The film is about
David Reimer a boy who at 7 months old had his penis burned off. Dr. John Money had a theory
that the way a child is nurtured can become a sex of the parents choice. Bruce was his birth name
and then they changed his name to Brenda Reimer so that they could nurture “her” into
becoming a girl. Brenda was dressed as a girl and was given toys that a girl typically wears.
Brenda had thought that she was a girl due to not realizing she was a boy and that she had began
to behave like a girl and would relate to things that girls tend to. In the interview scene with Dr.
Money, Brenda was asked if she would fight back and she responded with no because she is a
girl. Brenda had began to think this way because that’s how her parents had raised her and how
they would dress her up like a girl all the time.
In another scene Dr. Money wanted Brenda to go through surgery to have a vagina
constructed for Brenda which had made her really uncomfortable. Dr. Money had asked Brenda
what age she would prefer the surgery and she answered 13. She was horrified of what was going
to happen. Brenda had thought that if the surgery would go through she would change for worse.
Brenda had said that if they didn’t do what Dr. Money said he would yell at them and it made
them comply because her parents weren’t around. This goes to show that nurture over nature
isn’t something that is realistic in this setting due to the fact that Brenda had this feeling of doubt
the entire time. Today there are many genders out in the world but never has it worked by
forcing someone to change into the gender of the care takers choice. In this film it ended up
costing David his life because it had done so much damage to him. Society has gone to become
more accepting of people’s genders, and orientation. For the longest time being anything other
than heterosexual was frowned upon by society. This led to people often living their whole life in
misery. Statistically speaking people of the LGBTQ community tend to have a lower quality of
life and higher levels of depression. David was someone that had both as well even though he
had tried living his life as a man. His childhood experience had changed him and done harm that
he had chosen to take his own life.
Dr. Money’s theory was very extreme and he was willing to make sure that it came true
because he had published an article on it that had given him so much attention because it looked
like a success and he didn’t want it to be wrong. In the film the parent’s went on to say that it
was more false than true because Brenda still acted masculine even though she was raised as a
girl. This lead to David actually struggling with how to cope with his brother. David’s own
relationship was affected because of this as well. They ended up separating due to David not
being able to make her happy. A marriage can’t be stable if both partners aren’t happy. David
was not raised correctly or shown how a relationship should function. When something is
engrained since you were a little child, it’s hard to change that and this causes issues.
Overall this film was very interesting and is something that shows people that gender
isn’t a choice or an option that a person has to decide. This can lead to several problems. Gender
should be accepted rather than molded to fit what parents or people want. By being more
accepting of this, a person can have a higher quality of life and pursue what he or she desires in
life.