Caitlyn Jenner and the One-dimensional Woman
11:23 AMThis blog post is not to argue for or against "transgenderism." I want to argue against one of negative effects that occurs when people like Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner, who have sex changes and claim to be women. I'm of the opinion that people should do whatever they want. Never does my opinion or view have to change because of the actions of another, and the most important goal for me is to just be kind.
However, whether or not you agree with Bruce/Caitlyn's choices, there is an underlying message that is sneakily being spread by way of Bruce/Caitlyn's story. This message is destructive in nature and demeaning in content, and it's biggest proponent is Hollywood and the media. This issue doesn't offend me as someone against transgenderism, but as a woman.
To start this blog post I want to as a simple question.
What Does it Mean to Be A Woman?
BACKGROUND: Throughout the past year the idea of woman and what the female gender means has been evolving. Popular media networks like Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, TIME, and CNN have had several effective posts about how women should stop tearing each other down for the choices they make, and how women are so much more than what society has often labeled them as. A campaign against making women one dimensional characters based on their looks, beauty, chosen path. All of these posts I believe for the most part are helping improve how women are viewed in the workplace, in the home, and in general.
PROBLEM: The problem is maybe not with how Caitlyn Jenner is now portraying herself, but maybe it is. There hasn't been a long enough time to see what it means to be a woman to Caitlyn. If it all it means to Caitlyn/Bruce is changing the hair, and makeup, and clothes of a person along with plastic surgery than Bruce/Caitlyn is part of the problem.
With the time constraints, it's my opinion that the problem is the media and the way they have portrayed Bruce/Caitlyn. All media outlets have summed up what it means to be a woman in one sentence. Being a woman lies with the cosmetic/surface changes and using different pronouns. WHAT? Isn't this what women have been fighting against for how long? If you haven't read the Vanity Fair cover on Bruce/Caitlyn you should. From what I read/saw there wasn't anything about what being a woman really means. Bruce/Caitlyn was asked questions about how his family was taking this change and how his mom was accepting his changes. In the initial interview that showed Bruce as a woman, it was all about his look. Even in the first commercial for Bruce/Caitlyn's docu-series was all about him putting his own make-up and how having it done professionally has made such a difference. Bruce/Caitlyn and proponents of his change have already said many times how much better he is now that he can wear women's clothing, and paint his finger nails, and let down his hair. How belittling and humiliating is that to the women of this world? I felt it. I felt like the world and the media, and Bruce/Caitlyn were accepting and praising the fact that becoming a woman can be as simple as breast implants, and a professional make-over. What a dehumanizing feeling? We shouldn't assign value to someone based on what they wear and look like, but this is exactly what is happening.
What Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner's coming out cover and the media's portrayal of it is telling the world that it doesn't matter if you have three degrees and successful career breaking glass ceilings. It doesn't matter that you have sacrificed everything to raise your children. It doesn't matter that being a woman is something that has evolved from the women you have leaned on and grown with and from. It doesn't matter that you have spent how many years creating/defining/modifying what it means to be a woman. None of that matters cause a woman can be created on a surgical table in California. That there is nothing inherently special in women, because it can all be recreated.
NO. I don't accept that. I don't accept that someone can schedule a time and in a matter of hours can become a woman. Women mean more to me than that. I MEAN MORE TO ME THAN THAT. I am not a woman and a feminist because of the make up I put on, or the clothes I wear, or even the physical traits I have. It means more. Being a woman means more than that. Regardless of how you feel about transgenderism, everyone should be weary of anything that would put women in such a limiting and destructive box. The reaction to Bruce/Caitlyn's news and the media's promotion of it should tell you something about the way our society values women. They don't. Gender is an easy changeable thing, and that it means nothing. That is what has been told with this news story, and that is not a world I want to live in.
It isn't a world I want young girls growing up in and understanding that there is nothing special about them and their gender besides cosmetics.
I am fighting for women who have spent their entire lives defining what it really means to be a woman. Being a woman does not have anything to do with make-up, breast size, clothing, or shoes. I hope one day our society will realize and accept the real value of women, because how much better will the world be when we value what women are instead of what they look like.
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