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A friend pointed me toward Bruce Jenner who is making the news as she is switching her nouns from him to her. I had already been reading stories of the ongoing event and most of them are biased against Ms. Jenner. I had hoped with time and knowledge we were putting a lot of that behind us.
Christine Jorgensen made the main stream news way back when and the media savaged her. I think they published every bad photo they could find. Not everyone is going to be Miss America with the change but some are. Trans are people and as such they fill the wide spectrum of first looks just like everyone else does. I had no idea Ms. Jorgensen was a pretty lady until the internet came along. The only pictures I had seen up until then was G.I. Joe in drag.
This seems to be the mindset of the media yet today. It is no wonder the general public still has a negative view of those who are outed publicly either by choice or by accident. I love the transgender people because they are so unique and they are like everyone else. No that's not a contradiction. Try the links if you're interested in the stories. Keep in mind reporters are never neutral. They always have a bias one way or another.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bruce+jenner+news&ie=utf-8&o...
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/bruce-jenner-extrem...
always
Barb
Comments
Does it seem apparent to anyone else...
...that Chaz Bono's transition didn't evoke even one-tenth the outrage, sanctimony, sarcasm, and outright nastiness that Bruce Jenner's has so far? But then, Chaz was moving the other way, so I probably sound like Captain Obvious even to bring it up.
Jenner's detractors don't even bother to use original arguments--one fellow, responding to Russell Brand's appeal to stop bullying Jenner, snarked, "I think I'm trans-species...we all know species are just a social construct...." How many times have we heard this sort of "wit?"
Just curious: if anyone here ever had the above remark--or any variation thereof--directed at them, how did you respond? I'd love to verbally stick it to the person who says it to me.
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
I think I'm trans-species
You know, I believe you're right. It appears that you are an ass trapped in a human body.
It's eerie...
...because that's pretty much what I came up with (though my version was "jackass in a human body").
Livin' A Ragtime Life,
Rachel
the comment that kinda surprised me
was the person who insisted that Jenner is just a gay man in denial. I honestly didn't know that opinion was still out there ...
Maybe We Can Cut the World Some Slack
Bruce Jenner's transition is hardly typical.
Jenner first became visible as an international superstar when he placed tenth in the decathlon in 1972 in the Munich games. To put things in perspective in 1972 there was still considerable debate as to whether women would ruin their chances for childbirth by running in races longer than 400 meters. It wasn't until 1984 that women were allowed to run a marathon in the Olympics.
I can vividly remember how horribly embarrassed I was the first time I was soundly beaten by a woman in tennis. I was a good player who coached high school tennis and had deluded myself into thinking that MAYBE Billie Jean King could beat me. My come-uppance happened in 1971and the woman who bested me on the court was far from a pro.
Bruce Jenner's win in the most demanding physical endurance event, the decathlon, made him the manliest of the manly. People my age think of Jenner in the same breath with Bob Mathias and Jim Thorpe. He was married to three physically desirable women. The second was one of the beauties in the cornfield on Hee Haw. In many, many people's minds this all adds up only if Bruce is mentally ill.
To expect people to accept his (her?) change without a battle is too much. (To my knowledge he is still referring to himself as male.)
Add to his image as the greatest athlete in the world, on at least one day, the Kardashian circus and the fact that Jenner has been a shameless self-promoter for most of his life, and there you are. It's hard, even for me, to take him a face value, when he's turning his transition into a TV show.
From my perspective the press has been inconsistent, some very good and some very bad, which is about normal.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)