TRANSIBILITY

Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce, is one of the many strong and courageous celebrities that have openly come out as being transgender. In an interview with Diane Sawyer in April 2015, Jenner revealed her gender identification as a transgender woman after 65 years of feeling unsatisfied as a male. Caitlyn feels as though she is finally who she’s meant to be and is excited to take on what transgender visibility is all about, what with being the most visible transgender person in the community today: “If this is the only problem I have in life. I’ve got it made. I’m actually really excited about the future, to do some real good in the world,” says Jenner on her struggle. 

 

 

Jenner’s mini-series, I Am Cait, generated a large amount of publicity and media coverage. This star fully accepted her responsibility to educate people and dove right into her work with the airing of this show. The show was not as well received as Caitlyn had hoped due to her inability to capture the audience after years of being in the background in Keeping Up With the Kardashians. However, the message it was trying to portray is still loud and clear: The support that she is getting is what all trans people deserve. Acceptance, understanding, and peace between the communities are just a few wishes that Caitlyn has for the future. She believes that with her being present in the media, she can tell her story while helping confused trans people, as well as educating the ignorant. 

 

 

Jenner is aware that with fame comes responsibility. She feels as though she can use her voice to tell her story and to promote the idea of accepting people for who they are. On July 15th 2015, Caitlyn was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards). Her speech was not only moving, but informative, inspiring, and endlessly thought-provoking: “Could it have been different if spotlighting this issue with more attention could have changed the way things happened? We’ll never know,” says Jenner on a suicide that occurred just days before her interview with Diane Sawyer aired on abc. Caitlyn goes on to say that she can take the name-calling, the stares, and the backlash that comes with being a transgender woman in the media, but young girls and boys going through the confusing stage of gender dysphoria should not have to.  

 

Although Jenner has helped raise tremendous visibility to the transgender community, there has been much controversy about the awards that she has won this past year such as the Arthur Ashe Award and the prestigious, Woman of the Year Award by Glamour Magazine. Many were angered at the fact that a “man” won the Woman of the Year Award when said “man” has only been a “woman” for 6 months. Believing that someone is undeserving of an award is acceptable, whereas misgendering a person is not. There could be thousands of other women in the world more deserving of the Woman of the Year Award than Caitlyn Jenner, but denying her of her identity is cruel and part of the bigger problem for which she has been advocating this whole time.

 

Rose McGowan, an American actress and singer, recently expressed her anger and disappointment in Jenner winning the Woman of the Year Award, not due to her being transgender, but to her ignorance of the female gender: “We are more than deciding what to wear. We are more than the stereotypes foisted upon us by people like you. You're a woman now? Well f**king learn that we have had a VERY different experience than your life of male privilege,” says McGowan indirectly to Jenner in a lengthy Facebook post. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are posts being released on the daily about why Caitlyn Jenner is a horrible person, why she should not have won any award, and why she should basically be burned at the stake. Being a transgender person doesn’t automatically mean that they have all the right answers to the prying interview questions, or the knowledge of unequal history between the genders imbedded into their brain. It’s all a learning process and whether or not Caitlyn deserved to be appointed Woman of the Year or most courageous, that does not take away from the incredible light that she is shedding on the transgender community and the good that she is attempting to do for—yes, herself—but for thousands of unheard and oppressed people as well. 

 

The audience cheered when Bruce won Olympic gold medals, and many are cheering for Caitlyn now through this as, if not more challenging time in her life. 

She thanks her friends, her family, and her fans for being so accepting of her, and she can only hope that we as a society will educate ourselves so we can all advocate for the oppressed and misunderstood transgender community—whether we are doing it for her, or solely the people for whom she is fighting.