From the time of her surgery, Brenda is required to visit Dr. Money once yearly so that he can track her progress and “guard against the psychological hazards” she might face (79). These trips “only exacerbated the confusion and fear that Brenda was already suffering” (79). In the present, David explains that “you get the idea that something happened to you,” but without knowing what it was (79). Brian, who also visits Dr. Money on those trips, feels equally confused and concerned.

Money’s papers clearly show, Colapinto writes, that Brenda tries to tell researchers about her “sexual confusion,” however well she can articulate it (80). She “quickly learned to try to tell Money and his coworkers what they wanted to hear” (81). Still, Colapinto offers numerous examples of ways in which:

Money’s transcripts of his joint interview with the twins only serve to reinforce an impression that family members, teachers, Child Guidance Clinic personnel, and others in Winnipeg describe […] that Brenda was the more traditionally masculine of the two children (83).

Upon reflection, David relates that it was hard to describe “his inner sense of being identical to his brother in every way but in the anatomy of his genitals” (84). But Brenda seems clearly confused in Money’s documents.

As the twins grow older, Money questions them more often about their sexual thoughts and actions. He also works to program their senses of girl- and boyhood. He wants the children to form what he calls “gender schemas” by understanding “at a very early age the differences between male and female sex organs” (86). He shows them pornography: nude images of children, images of adults having sex.

In front of their parents, Money is gentle, but alone with the children, “he could be irritable or worse, especially when they defied him” (86). They resist him when he asks them to “inspect each other’s genitals” (86). These inspections “were central to his theory of how children develop themselves as boy or girl” and are therefore “crucial to the successful outcome” of Brenda’s surgery (87). Though Money’s studies define genital exploration as developmentally natural, “the children did not enjoy these enforced activities,” especially when they require play resembling sex (87). These rehearsals of what Colapinto calls “coital mimicry” are some of the most painful memories the men carry into adulthood (88).

Based on a trip to tribal areas in Australia, Money had formed the belief that restricting children’s sexual play leads to sexual and gender disorders as adults. Though others studying in the same areas seem baffled by Money’s claims, Money makes these observations the core of many writings and speeches for decades after conducting his research.

Brian and Brenda do not know about this pet theory of Money’s. They are obedient and fearful. Beginning at age 7, in 1974, Brenda resists the yearly trip to Baltimore. Money claims that, as Brenda grows older, she will needs two more surgeries to complete her vaginal construction. But Brenda “was determined not to have the surgery—ever” (92). Adult David recognizes that this rejection came about not only out of fear of surgery, but also from the knowledge “that to submit to vaginal surgery would lock [Brenda] into a gender that was not her own” (93).

Money shows Brenda images of women in childbirth in an effort to have her submit to the surgery. He describes, for her, sexual intercourse. But Brenda only grows more fearful; she has a nervous breakdown before her 9-year-old visit. Though David recognizes that his parents would have stopped the visits had they known the truth of their contents, he also notes that he thought they knew what Money did behind closed doors. 

Ron and Janet see only one “moment when the psychologist lost control” (97). Otherwise, they trust him. When, after the 1974 visit, he asks them to push Brenda toward vaginal surgery, they follow his guidance. Janet appears naked in front of Brenda “as often as possible” in order to normalize female genitalia, at Money’s suggestion (98). Once she realizes that her parents are working with Dr. Money, Brenda “began to rebel against her parents openly” (99).

Brenda continues to struggle in school, and Brian’s emotional wellness suffers, too. In 1976, the Reimers pack into a car with a camper and move west, to British Columbia. Having sold many belongings, they become suddenly desperate to find stability in the small town of Ashton Creek.

Around this time, when Brenda visits Dr. Money at age 10, she admits to having more romantic interest in girls than boys. Money asks Ron if he is okay “raising a lesbian,” a question that takes Ron aback (102). Money is not too focused on this romantic interest: He is publishing papers fudging Brenda’s words in interviews—more accounts “of Brenda’s successful metamorphosis”—and writes a book, Sexual Signatures, geared toward a more general audience (104).

While Money continues to find success, the Reimers struggle in British Columbia. Ron works hard and disengages from the family. Janet feels alienated, and her “condition deteriorated” into “serious depression” (105). Janet begins an affair, Ron finds out, and Janet attempts suicide. Nearly a year and a half later, the family returns to Winnipeg. Both children struggle in school and their emotional lives, but they are afraid to be honest, working “to hold together” a troubled marriage (107).

For Brenda, acting ladylike to please her parents becomes more difficult: After her eleventh birthday, her body changes. The Reimers’ reality does not match what Money writes about in his book.