54 pages • 1 hour read
John ColapintoAs Nature Made Him
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Epilogue-AfterwordChapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue Summary
In his Epilogue, Colapinto addresses the scientific significance of David’s case, which is not the only case available to science for thinking through the question of nature and nurture’s respective roles in gender formation. Cases like David’s “are necessarily rare,” but cases like his are gaining attention from scholars and journalists who follow up on them (273). More cases, including one of twins who experienced accidents during electrical circumcisions, have emerged.
Colapinto has sought these stories, but they are private, and details of follow-up are difficult to find. He has learned details about some children who were raised as girls in parallel situations and others who were raised as boys. When Colapinto shares with David a story of a child like him who is growing up as a girl, he is angry and writes to the parents. He sometimes dreams of that girl. John Money was the doctor consulted on this child’s case, five years after David began living as a male.
Afterword Summary
In his afterword, Colapinto acknowledges the intended message of his book to be “a clear corrective to the extreme nurturist stance of the 1960s and 1970s” (277). Colapinto explains that many of these attitudes, which bypass biological processes factoring into gender and sexuality, are still held by the broad public. While he is excited to share David’s story, he hopes that the book will not reduce the story “to simpleminded biological determinism” (277).
Colapinto encourages readers, in light of reviews of his book, not to allow the politics of this debate to disrupt scientific discussion. He has happily noted that the medical field now works actively “to re-examine the practice of infant sex reassignment” (278). Cheryl Chase, the intersex activist, has been able to speak to many more large groups of doctors.
Nurture, in Colapinto’s book, obviously plays a role: There are “environmental cues,” including “the presence of an identical twin brother,” that shape David’s experience (278). Colapinto names many other environmental factors that also contribute. But “the pressing insistence of Brenda’s biological maleness,” he notes, is an undeniable factor for his ultimate transition (279). He hopes that identity, in all its complexity, will be the overarching aim of this debate in the future.
Colapinto also addresses the moral problems of writing this book. He is worried about exploiting David’s life for his own living. He hopes to avoid sensationalizing David’s story, and he arranges to split profits from the book fifty-fifty. This approach seems correct, but it also means that he is paying his source: This dilemma, he decides, is appropriate in his circumstance. Importantly, he writes, David agrees to work on the book before any financial arrangement is made. In fact, he decides to raise the decision in his afterword only to counteract Dr. John Money’s insinuation that he paid for the story in the wake of enormous positive press directed toward it.
