Episode 59: Gender Theory – How Did It Come About?

We have introduced what gender theory is, and what it proposes, namely that “gender” is merely a social construct.

According to this theory, gender does not depend so much on a person’s biological sex as it does on how he or she feels internally. Gender is seen to be a broad spectrum from male to female, and a person may identify at any point within this spectrum, e.g. transgender, non-binary or even outside this spectrum, e.g. gender neutral, among others.

We also discussed why such reference to gender can be confusing because of the vague definitions employed as to what gender actually means. We then concluded that episode with a proposal to use the term “sex” instead of “gender”, since sex is clear and well defined. With this clarified, we can see why an individual person is either male or female, no matter what personality he or she might have.

Here, we will discuss briefly how gender theory came about. Certainly, it came about as a result of a complex interplay of philosophical, cultural and social factors. But forwe will limit ourselves to just a few significant ones that drove this idea to what it is today.

Before we proceed further, we want to emphasise how important it is to differentiate the ideology from the person who experiences gender dysphoria.

As Pope Francis said, we must always “reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration.” (Amoris Laetitia, no. 250)

Which is why the Catechism constantly reminds us that “they must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2358)

With that, we are now ready to discuss how gender theory came about.

Ancient Philosophy

Many of us think that this phenomenon might have arisen only in the mid to late 20^th century, but the philosophical fodder for its genesis had crept into western thought long before that.

Take Plato, for example. He had the idea that the soul was a distinct entity from the body. He thought the body was merely a shell, or even a prison, that the soul sought to escape from. Quite different from Aristotle’s idea that the body and soul are in fact inseparable – that is compatible with what we believe, which is that we are a unity of both body and soul. As the Catechism tells us, “Spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” (CCC, 365)

So we are not souls trapped in bodies. We are our bodies. In fact, being spirit and body at the same time, we are able to reveal spiritual realities to the material world around us. As Pope St John Paul II said, “The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.” (TOB 19:4)

In other words, since we are made in the image of God, we can reveal the reality of the Holy Trinity to the world around us in and through our bodies as male and female, “two reciprocally completing ways of ‘being a body’. ” (TOB 10:1)

Unfortunately, the dualistic concept that the soul is separate from the body simply refused to go away. Fast forward to the 17^th century, and we hear Rene Descartes famously saying that “I think, therefore I am”. This idea led to the belief that our minds were separate from, and indeed mattered more, than our bodies.

Fast forward again, this time to the 20^th century and we have Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, who championed absolute individual liberty and the idea that existence precedes essence. What this means is: “Since I exist, and my freedom is paramount, I get to decide who I want to be, what I want to do. In fact, I decide for myself what is right and what is wrong. As such, I can do whatever I want with my body. I am not bound by my nature, my essence as a human person to follow objective laws of human nature, in my quest for fulfilment.”

With this, the stage was set for the advent of gender theory.

Live Experiment

In the 1950s, Dr John Money, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins, came up with the idea that gender was merely a social construct, due more to nurture, upbringing, rather than nature. He saw a golden opportunity to prove his theory when in 1966, a couple sought his help for their infant son, Bruce Reimer. Bruce and his identical twin brother, Brian, were found to have a condition called phimosis, due to very tight foreskin. When they were eight months old, their parents were advised to have their sons circumcised. Tragically for Bruce, who went for the surgery first, there was a malfunction in the equipment and his penis was badly damaged during the operation.

To test his theory, Dr Money advised the parents to remove Bruce’s testes and what remained of his penis, and raise him as a girl. After all, if gender is a social construct, he should grow up to be like a woman if he were raised as a girl. In addition to making him wear dresses and play with girls’ toys, the parents were instructed to bring the twins back to Dr Money for regular consultations and follow-up. They complied.

As time went on, Bruce, who was renamed Brenda, found a lot of difficulty adapting to life as a girl, even though he was not as yet aware of the truth. He refused to play with dolls, felt like a boy, behaved like one, and experienced severe depression.

Later, he refused to go back to Dr John Money for further follow-ups. Apparently during these follow up consultations at the clinic, he had made the twins examine each other’s genitals and rehearse various sexual acts, claiming that this was necessary for healthy childhood sexual exploration.

When Bruce finally confronted his parents and was told the truth, he decided to reclaim his male identity and took on the name David. Very sadly, even though he later got married and had kids through adoption, he and his wife divorced. Some time afterward, he committed suicide at the age of thirty-eight; not long after, his brother Brian did the same.

Meanwhile, Dr John Money, who referred to the twins as the “John/Joan case”, reported on how his theory on gender was proven correct by this experiment, as he described David’s transition to a female as successful. Even though the truth eventually came out and his findings were discredited, it was too late. His ideas had permeated the minds of many who supported this view.

On the societal front, some countries embraced this idea readily and promoted gender-affirming treatment and transition for the young, such as those in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. Interestingly though, these same countries have now gone back on their policies and put a hold on this practice.

There is so much more to this topic than the little I have discussed, so I have shared some links in the show notes below.