Caitlyn Jenner is No Hero

Something about Caitlyn Jenner has always rubbed me the wrong way.  I kept my opinions to myself because I did not want anyone to be able to use my thoughts to justify their own transphobia or transantagonism.  However, the media's dogged attempts to cast Caitlyn as a hero and a symbol of American progressive attitudes about gender has really gotten on my last nerve.  As I gingerly broached the subjects with friends (and one of my students) I began to realize that I was not the only one giving Caitlyn Marie Jenner the side-eye.

My misgivings about Caitlyn began when she was still Bruce, starring in a series of episodes at the end of end of Keeping Up With the Kardashians called "About Bruce."   In these shows Bruce talked about his desire to live authentically, although he was purposely vague about what that meant.   What was  more disturbing were the interviews with his children.  Although they tried to put a positive spin on the changes affecting their family, much of what they discussed seemed deeply traumatic:  Accidentally seeing one's step-father dressed as a woman and having to keep that secret for years, finding make-up and assuming that it meant that your father was having an affair, and suspecting that your father figure has swiped clothing and make-up from you are all things that would send anyone to therapy.

It is one thing to live a lie, but it is another thing entirely to force your children to, not only to live a lie as well, but to collude in spreading this lie to the world in the form of a "reality show."  When we consider the family history of the Kardashians is it any surprise that all of the Kardashian sisters (minus Kourtney) seek out relationships with black men, who are considered the paragon of masculine sexuality.  

Posted on Instagram by Khloe

When I Am Cait premiered this summer I, like most people, tuned in to see what Cait was going to look like.  How would she define her personal style?  Would she wear a wig?   Does facial feminization surgery really work?   However, watching the show I was reminded of Toni Morrison's statement in The Bluest Eye that physical beauty is "one of the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought" because it "begins with envy, thrives in insecurity, and ends in disillusion."  Caitlyn seemed to delight in the fact that she could now participate in the beauty rituals that she had jealously watched her wife and daughters engage in.  She seemed giddy that she owned the same dress as her ex-wife even suggesting they they have a "who wore it best" competition (shady).  

I want to wear this DVF dress on my birthday!

Despite all of the money she had invested in plastic surgery, clothing, hair, and make-up Jenner still seemed unsatisfied with her appearance as a woman as demonstrated by her preoccupation with a voice that she deemed as too masculine.  It reminded me of the end of The Bluest Eye when Pecola finally got her dreamt for blue eyes, but immediately became overwrought with the idea that they were not blue enough.

Everything connects back to The Bluest Eye :)

Notably, the producers of I Am Cait tried to use the show as a platform to discuss the struggles of non-celebrity members of the transgender community.  Unfortunately, Caitlyn didn't seem quite down for the cause.  In fact, she demonstrated more angst over the tone of her voice than over the rate of suicide and sex work in the transgender community.  In a support group meeting, when someone mentioned relying on state assistance to survive, Caitlyn repeated the racist/classist Republican mantra of welfare making people not want to work.   Jenner asked, "don’t, a lot of times, they can make more not working with social programs than they actually can with an entry-level job?”  He went on to say,  “you don’t want people to get totally dependent on it.  That’s when they get in trouble. ‘Why should I work? I got a few bucks, I got my room paid for.’”  Jenner seemed not to recognize that all members of the transgender community do not make a living off their participation in a show about professional pretty people, nor do they  get paid to pose on the cover of Vanity Fair in their underwear.*  

Caitlyn Jenner's lack of sensitivity was again on display when asked by Ellen Degeneres about his stance on gay marriage.  Speaking of his prior beliefs he said,  “I’m a traditionalist;  I’m older than most people in the audience. I kind of like tradition, and it’s always been a man and a woman. I’m thinking, ‘I don’t quite get it.’”  Say what??????  

Although, Jenner stated that he now accepts that everyone has the right the be happy and that gay marriage is now the "law of the land" even Ellen wasn't quite buying it.  Of course, one's gender shouldn't necessarily determine one's political beliefs, but one's membership in a persecuted minority group should at least make them more sensitive to the struggles of others.  





*“I would like to see a nice transgender person who wore jeans and a sweatshirt,” Toni Morrison on Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover