Wendy Williams has made a career for herself out of critiquing and criticizing celebrities and star culture. She often refers to such judgement as an "opinion". I found her unfounded (and highly offensive) critique of Bruce Jenner to be highly inappropriate.
Her critique of Bruce's masculinity (or perception that he lacks masculinity because of his transition) hides her trans-phobic views in the name is celebrity culture. She points out that Bruce should have made the transition sooner, as to avoid having to tell it to his children.
She also mentions that Bruce is supposed to be the "rock" of the family. This statement not only furthers the misconception that masculinity means emotional strength, but it also limits those who identify as women to lesser subordinate domestic roles.
Wendy Williams uses the guise of a talk-show host to pander to those who view Bruce's transition as a ploy. Such views not only hurt Bruce, but undue years of work in the transgender community to combat such view. Masculinity does mean strength, and a women can lead a strong and guiding life just as any man would. Regardless of how you feel, such views do not belong on a daytime talkshow.
What do you think? Is this appropriate? As a successful black woman, what do these sentiments say about her opinions or how she views "traditional gender norms"? For me, I will be showing Wendy the door.
I totally agree with you on this one, Alex. I just watched the clip from the show and I found it so deceptive and problematic that she cloaked her narrow-mindedness and transphobia in a critique of those who are hungry for fame.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that her statement that Bruce was "supposed to be the rock" of the family was a loosely-coded statement about masculinity and gender roles. Beyond this, I want to discuss the really distressing implications of Williams stating again and again that she felt "duped" by Jenner.
She claims that she felt tricked by Jenner not because of their gender performance, but rather because of the fact that they seemed to be so level-headed and "grounded", but in actuality are a "fame whore" like the rest of their family (note: I am using the gender neutral pronoun "they" to refer to Jenner). I have several issues with this idea. First of all, it implies that Jenner's transition is nothing more than a publicity tactic, rather than a longterm internal struggle to become who they truly are. A transgender person choosing to come out and live authentically is not the same as Kim Kardashian marrying a man she doesn't love to make a bunch of money off of selling the wedding photos. Jenner is not a "fame whore" because they have decided they can no longer bear to perform masculinity in the same way.
The second issue I have with the fact that Williams keeps mentioning feeling "duped" by Jenner is because I feel it neglects the long and tragic history of violence against transgender people that is often justified by the idea that transgender people are "tricking' cis people. As Jenner mentioned in their interview with Diane Sawyer, violence against transwomen, specifically transwomen of color, occurs far too often in America in 2015. To continue to associate transgender individuals with "tricksters" and deceptive behavior does not benefit the cause of ending violence against trans people.
These are some great points, Alex and Katie. Williams' portrayal (and likely her understanding) of trans experiences is deeply flawed, and is presented in a way that underhandedly attacks the validity of Jenner's lived experiences, not to mention those of countless trans people. Williams' unsolicited opinion about the timeline of Jenner's coming out and transition fails to recognize the reality of the situations that trans people are in, fearing violence from cis people which is often "justified" by attackers when a trans person is deemed by them as not passing - the kind of situation perpetuated by attitudes like Williams'.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main problems I have with Williams' handling of the topic on her show is that she repeatedly acts and speaks as though she is entitled to a knowledge of (not to mention an opinion of) Jenner's transition. Our mainstream society's attitudes towards trans individuals is one that treats them as curiosities on display, rather than one that recognizes the challenges, pain, and violence that are often attached to trans narratives. When Williams says that she feels "duped" by Jenner, she prioritizes her perceived right to know about Jenner's identity over their struggles with identity, mental health, and violence associated with their trans narrative.
Absolutely guys. She appears like she's coming from position of authority, when in reality, what has given her this power? I'm genuinely upset with the media's victimization and general ignorance towards Bruce and the trans movement as a whole. I was watching the Diane Sawyer interview this weekend with a couple friends and when she asked Jenner if he was doing all of “this” to gain more media attention, we all simultaneously broke out into laughter. Not that this would make it excusable, but she didn’t even ask this question at the beginning of the interview (in a way that might frame it as getting the 'ignorant' questions out of the way); it was nestled somewhere in the middle, between sharing childhood stories and reasons why previous marriages fell apart. It’s upsetting that in order for Bruce Jenner to just exist, motivations need to immediately be attributed to Jenner's actions and choices. While I’m glad that the media is directing much needed attention towards the trans movement, this very same attention reveals some disturbing realities about the way we are almost unconsciously compelled to narrativize the lives of celebrities by filling in the (apparent) gaps in their life stories that we don't see.
ReplyDelete