Dr John Money

In the 1950s, New Zealand psychologist Dr John Money published his theory of human gender, providing the medical establishment with a solution to problems posed by intersex bodies. Money believed that gender was fluid in all human beings until the age of 2, advising that when presented with an intersex infant it was important for medical professionals to choose either a male or female gender and then cement that decision with surgery. 

Money’s theory paved the way for the normalisation of medical intervention for intersex children. Many intersex babies were assigned female at birth due to the ease of creating the appearance of female genitalia in comparison with male genitalia.

Under Money’s protocol, parents were advised to keep the child’s medical history secret from friends and relatives as well as from the intersex child themselves. To Dr John Money, consistency in parenting in the assigned gender was key to a successful outcome. If the outcome was bad, as it was with Money’s patient David Reimer who committed suicide in 2004, Money would blame inconsistency in parenting rather than it being a problem with his theory.