To be irritated by Caitlyn Jenner (but not for the reason you imagine)?

[NotYouNaanBread]

This is NOT a thread about transgender. Obviously it is a thread about a transgendered woman, but I think that the trans aspect is secondary.

Caitlyn Jenner is extremely rich (worth over 100m) and famous in her own right, quite removed from the KUWTK thing. She is supported by a massive and powerful media machine with PR agencies and media advisers pouring out of her ears. I do not think that she is shining beacon of trans bravery. She will never be ashamed, abused or humiliated by people around her in her transition, instead she has the wordwide media cooing over her. I don't think that's a whole lot of inspiration to a working class person struggling with their gender in Detroit or Coventry.

BUT, nothing that I have read has addressed the fact there there was a man called Bruce Jenner who deceived no fewer than 3 wives and 6 children over his many years, and who was married to Kris Jenner for 20 years before saying "Bruce Jenner doesn't exist any more. And I'm making a TV show to celebrate this. The kids are going to be in it too." I can't even begin to imagine how I would feel if my husband of 20 years said this to me, and then used the media career that I had built up (whether we "approve" of Kris and KUWTK is neither here nor there) to launch a TV show to go into it in detail, and drag all of his many children into it. It's so unbelievably self-centred.

I have no difficulty with the transgendered aspect. But I have a lot of difficulty with the completely uncritical response to the fact that he knew for several decades that this was who he really was, and STILL kept on lying to the women around him, with incredibly hurtful consequences, especially to Kris and the youngest 2 girls.

dons feminist hat I think that she is still fundamentally perceived as a man - a man in transition, but still a man - and that she is being accorded male privilege in her choice (rich, white, male privilege, no less). Society tends to praise/defend the man and blame the woman in, well, most situations, and it seems that Caitlyn Jenner is benefitting from this even while she is ostensibly rejecting.

Yes, this is more of a rant than an IABU, especially about the injustice to Kris Jenner, but I would love to know if I'm on my own with the male privilege bit.

Sorry for the crazy long post.

It seems to me that he has some kind of fantasy about what a woman is/should look like. The only time I ever see women look like he does is on those awful reality tv prog on American women who are über rich and spend all their money on plastic surgery and all their time having a bitch dest..
It's a commercialised view of womanhood and it's very insulting.

a commercialised view of womanhood

Yes.

And IMO reveals an insecurity that deserves sympathy rather than celebrations.

sympathy, yes indeed.
I am sorry for anyone who is not happy with themselves.
I rather suspect that having your genitala cut off and being injected with hormones so that that you can be a woman isn't going to make him happier in the long term.
It certainly gets him attention, which is what he craves, clearly. I would have had much more respect for him if he had simply had the op then gone about his daily life like most other women.
But then the whole family unit is dysfunctional. The whole Kardashian thing is nauseating.

I can't bring myself to care one way or another about her, but it's because I can't stand the Kartrashians and their whole 'empire'. I also don't see any point to television shows about the vacant little lives of women with too much botox who spend their time bitching like high school girls. And I'm really not interested in following the relationship woes of so called celebrities. It's just not something which interests me. I can't find it in myself to care about people who measure their self worth in twitter followers.

I agree. I watched the Kardashian thing for about ten minutes once to see what all the talk was about. Oh dear. Unhappy people. Why do so many people follow all this rubbish? To wallow in envy of their riches? To feel better about themselves? For advice on how to look and behave? It's depressing.

Having been in the situation where my stepfather came out as being gay nearly 20 years after having married to my mum, I agree with you OP.
It's all very well saying that it must have been horrible for him having to live a life he didn't want, but actually what about the family he deceived? They may have bucket loads of money, but it doesn't mean a jot at the end of the day.
Call me selfish if you want, but actually it hurt a lot at the time. This man had walked into our lives when I was 12, and then, 20 years later, walked out again, throwing a huge hand grenade into the middle of our family as he did so.

We had to put up with people talking about us behind our backs. At one point we couldn't even walk into the local pub without hearing someone badmouth our mum, when, in fact, our stepdad hadn't thought to actually tell people the real reason for them splitting up. If Caitlyn Jenner had been honest from the start, then maybe I'd feel differently, but it scars you when you've had to deal with something like this. For all their faults, and I am SO not a fan of the whole Keeping Up with Kardashians thing!, events like this are not always just about the person who has gone through the life-changing event. There is always another side of the story that often goes unexplored, or not really cared about.