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Caitlyn Jenner comes out as a transphobe!
In KaleiodoScot Johanna-Alice Cooke writes:
There is a very ugly thing that exists within the transgender community that we don’t talk about much. There are many way to describe it, but perhaps the most descriptive is trans-on-trans transphobia: when one transperson judges or makes comment on another’s identity or appearance in order to denigrate, insult or exclude them. Or when one transperson judges another due to their appearance or gender-expression.
Cosmopolitan has reported that, in an interview with Time Magazine, Caitlyn Jenner said:
Quote:I think it’s much easier for a trans woman or a trans man who authentically kind of looks and plays the role. So what I call my presentation. I try to take that seriously. I think it puts people at ease. If you’re out there and, to be honest with you, if you look like a man in a dressm it makes people uncomfortable. So the first thing I can do is try to present myself well. I want to dress well. I want to look good. When I go out, as Kim says, you’ve got to rock it because the paparazzi will be there.
This is trans-on-trans transphobia. No ifs, buts or maybes. It’s transphobia. From one of the most high-profile transpeople in the world no less.Deconstructing her words, it is immediately apparent that there is a deep insecurity and not a little fear of not being accepted for the woman she is. In Caitlyn’s pampered, privileged life things like money don’t actually matter all that much. Proof absolute that all that wealth and appearance can’t help someone take the emotional and mental steps necessary to a successful and secure-in-ourselves transition any quicker than the rest of us.
Of course, to some, Caitlyn herself looks like a man in a dress. That’s why some bright spark decided to sell Caitlyn Halloween costumes earlier this year. Ones based upon her ‘coming out’ picture in Vanity Fair where the art of cosmetics, plastic surgery and those dressing her was exerted to the full to make her look as feminine as possible as reported by the Huffington Post. You can even buy ‘Pin the hair on Caitlyn‘ party games! (Please don’t! This is transphobia too.) There are people in the world who don’t see Jenner as anything other than a man in a dress. So if she is a distasteful holiday parody, what does that say about the rest of us who don’t have her privileged life?
Of course all transpeople want to dress well. We all want to present ourselves well. It’s just we aren’t all cis-normative like she is. Nor do we all want to say the same things Jenner wants to say – which I think it’s fair to interpret as “I am a person transitioning later in life, but I can still look really good and get to do things like be in glamorous shots on magazine covers.” Some of us just want to live our lives as who we are, away from cameras and glitter.
All of us, all transpeople, every single one of us, want to live without fear of facing transphobia in our lives. Many of us aren’t happy with our appearance. Many of us blame that appearance for why we face transphobia in every single day of our lives. According to the Trans Mental Health Survey (Scottish Transgender Alliance et al. 2012) fully 80% of transgendered people consider suicide. That’s how bad the problem is: bad enough to consider killing ourselves to get away from it.
In her rampant transphobia that she is trumpeting to the world, Caitlyn Jenner is adding to the level of that abuse by buying into the idea that there is some kind of bar that divides transpeople. On one side are the acceptable men and women (presumably like her) who fit neatly into a gender-binary and who’s appearance is completely conventional and indistinguishable from any other person of that gender. On the other are the failures who don’t make the grade and who she claims don’t, ‘…put people at their ease.’. This is gatekeeping, pure and simple. Jenner thinks she has some kind of right to judge who the beautiful people are. I would suggest that, in the words of Marylin Manson, she ‘…can’t smell her own shit on her knees…’.
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6 Replies
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On balance, Caitlin has done more in a positive way for me (us?) than negative but it is intriguing how words can be interpreted. Although I may disagree with her view about the reaction to a ‘man in a dress’, I didn’t take such affront as the author.
There is a greater awareness of transgender in the community from Caitlin’s profile albeit still with little understanding of the reasons and nuances.
I really do sympathise with those MtF that live full time female lives and their feeling of unhappiness. I am comfortable moving between my male and female worlds – the ease and efficiency of being male and the joy and happiness of my femme world. Being an ugly female and unable to afford the ‘Caitlin treatment’ is (just) one reason why living full time is not an option. My dear wife is another.
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Thanks for this thoughtful reflection. I tend to feel that Caitlyn’s own life journey, before, during and, so far, after transition actually contradicts what she seems to be implying – i.e that there are some ‘essential’/’fundamental’? ways of being a trans person that need attending to! Instead I feel that she is trying to be who she is – a bit mixed up like the rest of us, on a journey always, and not always politically correct for various people, depending on our own journeys and characteristics. She is indeed, on one level, a little fortunate being so well-off, a celebrity and white – and I feel that poorer, especially Afro-American, transgender critics in the US might understandably feel a little sore about the attention she has had. Yet overall she has done much to raise awareness and encourage others – including poor Afro-Americans too I suspect! Money, celebrity etc however also comes at a cost though – and perhaps this is also reflected in those reported comments. Her recent encounter with a prominent anti-LGBT pastor – http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/caitlyn-jenner-houston-pastor_5676cdc1e4b0b958f657036e?section=australia – also raises interesting questions. Her words after that (and the predictable reaction) kind of reflect my thoughts on this, encouraging us all too not to divide but to work together even with frustrations:
“I am guessing this is probably not the last time I will say the wrong thing, or say something the wrong way. I promise to keep learning, and to try to be more articulate in the future,” she wrote. “We have a lot of hard work to do. I am looking forward to doing it together.” -
On balance, looking at myself as objectively as I can. I ask a few questions.
Would I prefer to be shorter? Yes.
Would I prefer to have smaller feet? Yes.
Would I prefer to have narrower shoulders? Yes.
Would I prefer to have my own hair? Hell yes.
Would I prefer to have smaller facial features, head size, nose etc.
Would having those things make my trans existence easier? I believe it would.
Objectively, I can’t for the life of me actually see what is actually inaccurate about what Caitlyn said, perhaps I have missed something in the reprinting of her statement. As unpleasant as it is, and as clumsily as she is doing it, she is just stating an unpleasant fact. I am sure we all know those who fulfill the criteria I have listed and have established a life, I know some.
I have been out in public many times over the years and as sad as it is for me to say this I have had my share of bad experiences.
Would my feminine side of life be easier if I fitted the average image of the perfect female, or more simpler, have less masculine features? Sorry, but yes it would.“I think it’s much easier for a trans woman or a trans man who authentically kind of looks and plays the role. So what I call my presentation. I try to take that seriously. I think it puts people at ease. If you’re out there and, to be honest with you, if you look like a man in a dress it makes people uncomfortable. So the first thing I can do is try to present myself well. I want to dress well. I want to look good. When I go out, as Kim says, you’ve got to rock it because the paparazzi will be there.
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It’s amazing how quickly people jump on the bash Caitlyn band wagon.
After reading Caitlyn’s interview with Time Magazine, the two commentaries on that interview in Cosmopolitan and Kaleidoscot and Caitlyn’s response, I think that both Alex Rees at Cosmopolitan and Johanna- Alice Cooke at Kaleidoscot have been very unkind and critical of Ms Jenner taking quotes about herself out of context and making them into generalizations about all trangender people.
Caitlyn states in the Time article that she still has a lot to learn and also says:
”I am not a spokesperson for the trans community, I am not. The media kind of projects me as being the spokesperson, but from my standpoint, I am not. I am a spokesperson for my story and that’s all I can tell. And hopefully by telling my story, I can make people think.”In her response to the commentaries on her interview Caitlyn says:
“I guess it’s true that there are some things that I have not gotten right. Sometimes this is because I’m still finding out about the issues. Sometimes this is because something that is true for me isn’t true for other people in our community. And sometimes I’ve said things that just come out the wrong way. And sometimes the media takes one comment out of context—or interprets it to mean something other than what I meant.”Caitlyn then goes on to explain what she said and also apologise for any hurt that she may have caused.
I would suggest that everyone reads the Time Magazine article and Ms Jenner’s response to the commentaries before they criticize someone who is trying her best to be a positive image for transgender people but not always succeeding.
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Angela_Morgan wrote:It’s amazing how quickly people jump on the bash Caitlyn band wagon. I think that both Alex Rees at Cosmopolitan and Johanna- Alice Cooke at Kaleidoscot have been very unkind and critical of Ms Jenner taking quotes about herself out of context and making them into generalizations about all trangender people.
Caitlyn then goes on to explain what she said and also apologise for any hurt that she may have caused..Completely agree Angela, you put it so much better than I could. It never ceases to amaze me how some will accept, and use, the press to support a point but of course if the same press disagrees, well, ‘they are biased’, or whatever.
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Thanks all for the words above. Good discussion.
Like all of us, Caitlyn is human and as for all of us words can be clumsy. She is spot on that she speaks for her story not anyone else. We are a spectrum of types shapes features and yes people do judge books by the cover – just ask any woman – trans or not.
When we read things we have to keep in mind that the text is the smallest part of the message – the spoken tone and body language is far more important and yet we don’t see that in the cold typeface.If we all paused and thought before we said and wrote things the planet may just survive….
Juliette
