Television star and former Olympian Bruce Jenner confirmed on Friday in an interview rumors that have been circulating for a long time in the press: he affirmed that he feels like a woman and that, from now on, he will live as such. Since the beginning of the year, there were rumours that Jenner was having hormone treatments to undergo a complete sex change and become a woman.
Here's a clip of the top 10 highlights of his interview with Diane Sawyer:
The transformation may be surprising, but the decision to make it public isn’t. Long before being swallowed by the Kardashian vortex, Jenner has lived for the cameras. That's how the world saw him win the Olympics. That was also how he made a living after: through the cereal ads, movies, sitcoms, commercials, documentaries, sports programs, etc. So, of course the cameras have to be on him in this new journey of his life.
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| Bruce Jenner in an ad for Wheaties in 1976 |
Jenner always felt very confused with his gender identity; he said in the interview it is a problem he’s been dealing with since he was five years old. I find this particularly interesting because to deal with this confusion, Jenner, maybe unconsciously, chose to position himself in a career that very much breeds masculinity, especially at that time period. As an Olympian, he became a sport icon that was nationally viewed as a representation of the ideal man for the time. By being an athlete, Jenner was perhaps trying to escape from the confusing thoughts in an attempt to identify with the far end of the spectrum and fit society's ideals. Words like strength, robustness and muscular were often connected to the idea of masculinity - and that was exactly what Jenner was trying to accomplish with his career; to fit within that frame of masculinity and conform to the time's ideals. Furthermore, he won the Olympics at a very delicate moment for the United States with the Cold War. He represented a victory of Americans over Soviets; which made him an even stronger representation of a role model (he was put in the cover of many magazines that connoted masculinity, such as Sports Illustrated below).
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| Bruce Jenner, 1976 |
Now, Jenner is again in the spotlight in a way that few fans would be able to imagine in 1976. The first clues to his transformation were during fall when he was seen with long hair with blond highlights, colorful nails, earrings and shaved legs. In December, he confirmed to TMZ that he was going to do a surgery to diminish his Adam's apple. This aspect is also particularly interesting for me because this physical aspect is such a minimal detail but that can mean so much in terms of masculinity and femininity. This detail was so important for Bruce to establish his feminine inner feelings that it was necessary to get surgery to change physical features for him to be able to get closer to identifying himself as a woman.
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| Bruce Jenner before and after all the plastic surgeries. |
The issue of transgenders is very hard to tackle, especially in Bruce Jenner’s world. His complicated relationship with stardom and the exuberant nature of the Kardashians, and the series have made the defenders of transgenderism a little nervous. The fact that E! is a channel known for sordid celebrities intrigues and other audience baits does not help. But in an era when scripted television programs showing transgender characters (Orange is the New Black) gained mainstream acclaim, this may be a rare opportunity to depict a real person undergoing this transformation. If the series manages to document the physical and emotional impact of Jenner’s transition and show it in an sensitive manner that is more educational than sensational, it can have a tremendous impact on the transgender community and their representation to the world. Furthermore, how do we frame transgenders within masculinity / femininity debates? Hopefully, Bruce will be the golden key to start this much needed debate. YOU GO BRUCE!! <3
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| Is it just me or does it seem like they Photoshopped lipstick on his mouth in this picture? |
I agree with your post about Bruce Jenner especially in his role of promoting the transgender community. What I found interesting about this whole issue is that so many stars seemed to feel the need to interject their own opinions, a number of who seemed to use Bruce's story as an excuse to bring up other issues. A recent attack came from Alice Eve whose response to Bruce identifying as a woman posted
ReplyDelete"If you were a woman no one would have heard of you because women can’t compete in the decathlon. You wouldn’t be a hero. You would be a frustrated young athlete who wasn't given a chance. Until women are paid the same as men, then playing at being a “woman” while retaining the benefits of being a man is unfair. Do you have a vagina? Are you paid less than men? Then, my friend, you are a woman."
While her comments are not unwarranted, it should not detract from the difficulties that the transgender community faces.
Hearing about the possibility of a docu-series featuring Bruce Jenner is something that is pretty worrying to me. While I absolutely appreciate the visibility that Bruce is bringing to trans issues and the trans community, it is still really important to be critical of the type of attention that is being promoted. With the media frenzy currently surrounding this event, there have been both positive and negative responses to Bruce's coming out as trans, and the negative attention is what speaks to the importance of this critical view. For example, Alex posted about Wendy Williams' transphobic rant on her show, which was just one of many responses that are hurtful to trans people. Comedians are already using it to joke about, which only serves to perpetuate transphobia and devalue trans experiences and identities.
ReplyDeleteIf this proposed docu-series plans to focus on areas of physical transition, such as hormones and surgery, this will paint a narrative that is not a good representation of the majority of trans experiences, but rather a spectacle designed to appeal by being something alien. The reality is that Bruce Jenner is not representative of the trans community as a whole, especially seeing how most trans people, especially trans people of color, are much more concerned about keeping their jobs and not being attacked on the streets, something Bruce actually alluded to during the interview. As a privileged, upper class white male with access to the money and publicity that comes from being a celebrity, Bruce's struggles and obstacles center around different things than those faced by the vast majority of the trans community. The kind of attention that this media coverage is bringing to the trans community is one that focuses on defining gender through physical attributes coded to be masculine or feminine, rather than through one's identity.
Piggy backing off of Annika and Emily's posts, I am glad, also, that Bruce has brought up the transgender conversation up in media when it has always been a touchy subject, but I also wonder how "authentic" all this really is. After reading one of the assigned readings for this week, I noticed it related specifically to this media story. Richard Dyer in the chapter "A Star is Born and the Construction of Authenticity" he talks about the words in fan literature that constantly describe stars in their relation to "authenticity" (sincere, immediate, spontaneous, real, direct genuine and so on). He mentions that authenticity is a quality necessary to the star phenomenon and also the quality that guarantees the authenticiy of the other particular values a star embodies (in this case, Bruce's recent actions to talk honestly about his life) (134). He goes on to say that because of the development of mass media, advertising and television there has been a great deal of manipulation of the handling of human discourse and intercourse in order to profit off of it. I wonder, is this the case with the Jenner story? Is he stretching the truth or bringing more attention to himself in order to yield a profit? Or are his actions truthful and "authentic"? I am not educated in his story or background to make an educated opinion on this subject, but with his affiliation with the Kardashian family and how they are represented in media, my thoughts lean more towards the "stretching the truth side".
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