Opinion

Bruce And Caitlyn Jenner And The New Abnormal

OPINION
Bruce Jenner tells daughters about becoming a woman on 'KUWTK'
Derek Hunter Contributor
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Ten years ago, if you had told anyone the first viable female major political party candidate for president would wear fewer dresses than the winner of the 1976 Olympic men’s decathlon you would’ve been met with laughter. Yet that’s exactly where we find ourselves today and it’s being treated as if it’s the cure for cancer.

Bruce Jenner “identifies” as a woman, and dresses as a woman some of the time. So what? That should be the reaction of anyone who doesn’t personally know him. Who cares what some has-been athlete does in their personal life? Being left alone to be however you want to be used to be the goal, and it was an admirable one. That’s not good enough anymore.

I know I’m supposed to call Bruce “Caitlyn,” but I’m not going to. I’ve only ever known him as Bruce, and only ever really know him as the pathetic guy swarmed by Kardashians when I flipped past the E! channel to find something not vapid to watch.

I didn’t care about him then, I don’t care about him now. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars worth of plastic surgery “to live as your authentic self” is fine if you have the means, but it’s not worthy of celebration. But celebrate the media is.

In the five hours after Jenner’s picture was made public, Time magazine sent twelve tweets relating to it, including:

That’s just one news outlet.

Progressive websites were quick to put together “guides” on how to speak about Jenner — what you can and cannot say. Some of the advice includes, “Please note that not all gender non-conforming people identify as transgender; nor are all transgender people gender non-conforming,” “Whenever possible, ask transgender people which pronoun they would like you to use,” “Be aware of the differences between transgender women, cross-dressers, and drag queens. Use the term preferred by the individual,” “Many transgender people do not identify as transsexual and prefer the word transgender” and, after this was all launched by a news story about someone who’d just had hours of surgery to look like a woman, “Journalists should avoid overemphasizing the role of surgeries in the transition process.”

Bruce Jenner will now become more famous than ever before, win awards and be on television more than his less-talented stepchildren. And the media will fawn.

Merriam-Webster defines “normal” as “usual or ordinary : not strange.” What Bruce Jenner did to himself is, by definition, abnormal. But the media will not present it as such. The number of transgender people in the country is infinitesimal relative to the rest of the population, but you’d never know it by the coverage.

Progressives used to accuse Republicans of wanting to go into American’s bedrooms and control what happens in there, now it’s like progressives want everyone to go in there and cheer what’s happening.

And most Americans, aside from thinking it weird, don’t really care either. The only time the majority of Americans think of Jenner is when the media throws him in their faces like him existing, like the rest of his talentless family, is worthy of celebration. In an age of “YouTube celebrities” and reality TV “stars” releasing sex tapes, maybe a man turning into a woman is about as normal as we’re going be for a while.

Either way, who gives a damn? That attitude should be good enough for Jenner advocates, but does anyone think it will be?