April 24, 2015

"Jenner’s interview will be so widely watched it could prove a tipping point, further normalizing Americans' perceptions of the nation's transgender population."

"But there are risks for the community in so much attention going to a celebrity whose early 21st century notoriety came with his comical role as the befuddled husband on 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians.' Many worry that perceptions will be dragged back into the sensational. As history suggests, it’s a slippery slope."

107 comments:

mccullough said...

Jenner seems mentally ill. Don't see how that will help perceptions of the transgendered.

traditionalguy said...

The Transgenders face the same problem as gays are undergoing today. Now no one cares about how special they are anymore. The whole thing will have been a big waste of time.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Robin Williams used to tell a joke about how it was bigoted to think that guys named Bruce are all homos because the greatest athlete in the world was Bruce Jenner.

Don't know whether that joke stands the test of time.

Tank said...

Jenner was once a great American Olympic hero at a time when it was needed (maybe it's always needed). Now he looks like a mentally ill, pathetic human being. He is ill. I feel sorry for him.

Gay people are not ill. Men who think they are women are ill. He needs help. I don't think he'll get the kind of help he needs.

Darleen said...

"transgender" seems to be the only mental illness where the "cure" is to enable the illness and enhance it with surgery and a suspension of reality by everyone else.

Bay Area Guy said...

From the glory of the Olympics and the face of the Wheaties Box to the talentless Kardashians, a bogus tv show and gender-bending publicity stunts in 40 short years.

The arc of failure or boredom?

We don't care, Bruce.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Yeah right - I can't wait to watch it.

Moose said...

No tipping point here. Just confused people that wandered into the wrong closet...

Quaestor said...

MST3K "Angel's Revenge" Watch it through the end credits, Mike makes an incredibly prescient quip.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

That's one ugly chick.

Virgil Hilts said...

I wonder if the push for acceptance of transgender behavior over the rights and sensibilities of others (i.e., Planet Fitness) may be the LGBT movement jumping the shark. Perhaps they should have stuck with LGB. Though too scared of being made a pariah for saying what they really think, I sense most people (including teenagers who are incredibly accepting of gays and lesbians) have not reached the point of regarding the Bruce Jenner type transgender stuff as normal or healthy.

chillblaine said...

I wonder if it will be possible to somehow avoid the interview and all the social media buzz. How many fake twitter followers and fake facebook likes does it take to achieve critical mass.

I hope this is a sell signal for the whole Kardassian empire.

Quaestor said...

Definitely in the Gigalawford range on my shameometer.

rwnutjob said...

http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/search/label/GOP%20Pussies

mtrobertsattorney said...

The problem with our culture is that there are pockets where unenlightened people still think the word "normal" has a meaning.

Sebastian said...

""transgender" seems to be the only mental illness where the "cure" is to enable the illness"

Indeed. Except there's no such thing as "illness" anymore. S/he just differently abled. Check your labeling privilege.

"further normalizing Americans' perceptions"

Not to worry, deviancy has been defined down for quite some time, the transvaluation of all values is proceeding apace, and the slippery slope is now part of a postmodern amusement park.

rwnutjob said...

http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/search/label/GOP%20Pussies

Quaestor said...

“Jenner’s interview will be so widely watched it could prove a tipping point, further normalizing Americans’ perceptions of the nations transgender population.”

Something tells me Lorraine Ali doesn’t quite understand the word normalize.

Etienne said...

The Turks should finish the Armenian massacre.

Kohath said...

Hooray for self-obsessed people, I guess.

madAsHell said...

I wonder if Mr. Jenner's mental illness is the fall-out of taking too many steroids in the 70's?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Damn, I guess Robert Downey Jr. had it right re: Sawyer interviews.

Bill said...

He was emasculated by that household of harpies.

Bay Area Guy said...

Don't forget that Bruce has a net worth of ~100 Million dollars.

Not to sound like a Communist, but having that type of wealth can distort your lens on life.

Most people have to deal with life's drudgery (working, paying bills, getting kids off to school, cleaning up the dog poop in the backyard, laundry, shuttling kids to little league, etc.,etc.)

Yes, there is joy. Walks in the park on Sunday, a nice family dinner, etc., etc.

I don't have time to ponder my "gender identity" -- I can barely get the electric can opener to work.

Jason said...

RESOLVED: The current obsession with transgender rights and mitigating ever more trivial offenses to a vanishingly small segment of the population is the Tulip Bulb Mania of the SJW movement.

Discuss.

Jim in St Louis said...

"Jenner's interview will be so widely watched..."

Not by me.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

It seems impolite to use the phrase "freak show," but what else should it be called when someone purposefully alters themselves drastically and then intentionally courts public attention?
If words have meaning then transexualism can't be normal. Calling something abnormal normal isn't kindness, it's a lie, and forcing a society to live and speak lies is not healthy.

Mr. D said...

Eric the Fruit Bat said...
Robin Williams used to tell a joke about how it was bigoted to think that guys named Bruce are all homos because the greatest athlete in the world was Bruce Jenner.

Don't know whether that joke stands the test of time.


I remember Mad Magazine making a similar joke. When "The Incredible Hulk" came out on television, they changed the name of the character to David Banner because the suits thought Bruce Banner was not masculine enough. I recall the cartoon discussing this showing network executives discussing this change, with a television in the background blaring "and with his win in the decathlon, Bruce Jenner is the world's greatest athlete!"

Dave Schumann said...

@mccullough -- believing you're actually a woman, when you're objectively not, is a pretty good definition of mental illness.

The success of gender dysphoric people in lumping themselves in with the homosexual rights movement is amazing. They're not homosexuals. Homosexuality is about attraction and behavior; legitimizing it is about recognizing individual rights. The transgender movement, on the other hand, is about dragging society along in "recognizing" an objective delusion.

Michael said...

Well, it will be a comfort to the twenty or thirty million transgendered. Less so for the the other billion LGBT in our midst.

All perfectly normal.

MadisonMan said...

Jenner's interview will be so widely watched seems like Network Exec wishful thinking to me.

DanTheMan said...

Moynihan warned us about "defining deviancy down".

It seems we are now intent on defining deviancy away.

Laslo Spatula said...

I certainly hope that -- before proceeding to such a body-and-mind-changing irrevocable decision -- Jenner has at least experimented in sucking a few cocks. Just to be sure.

Because it would be sad to willfully remove your penis, be in bed as a woman with some guy and then think: "Say, I just really don't like sucking cock. I don't like the gagging, I don't like the uncomfortable distended jaw, I don't like the taste of what gets ejaculated down my throat.

Unfortunately, now I don't have a lot of other options: my surgically-created vagina will barely fit a thumb up to the first knuckle."

So, anyway: sucking cock is pretty much it. Again: I hope Bruce Jenner has at least experimented in sucking cock before pulling the trigger. As it were.

I am Laslo.



Alex said...

I can see hate and bigotry is alive and well in the Althouse dungeons!

Todd said...

Laslo Spatula said...
I certainly hope that -- before proceeding to such a body-and-mind-changing irrevocable decision -- Jenner has at least experimented in sucking a few cocks. Just to be sure.

Because it would be sad to willfully remove your penis, be in bed as a woman with some guy and then think: "Say, I just really don't like sucking cock. I don't like the gagging, I don't like the uncomfortable distended jaw, I don't like the taste of what gets ejaculated down my throat.

Unfortunately, now I don't have a lot of other options: my surgically-created vagina will barely fit a thumb up to the first knuckle."

So, anyway: sucking cock is pretty much it. Again: I hope Bruce Jenner has at least experimented in sucking cock before pulling the trigger. As it were.

I am Laslo.

4/24/15, 1:51 PM


Maybe Jenner is a lesbian?

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Both transgender and transsexual (e.g. homosexual) orientations are psychoses. While it may be reasonable, even rational, to tolerate transgender and transsexual orientations when they are not progressive conditions, there is no cause to normalize them.

It's telling that the trans-equality movement opposes individual choice for treatment. It's further telling that the "no labels", "equal", etc. movements exhibit pro-choice or selective tolerance of not only behaviors, but also a diverse spectrum of orientations.

Anyway, principled tolerance, not selective exclusion. These pro-choice movements are creating moral hazards left to "unplanned" Posterity to reconcile.

Michael said...

Alex

Would appreciate a trigger warning before you use the "d" word. Something I can't and won't talk about, but I think you should be more careful with your own, Lagerfield-like, hatreds.

Michael said...

I will say this about Bruce and his journey: he does not appear to be headed to slut-dom like the rest of the women in his family. More the school marm look.

Then again he isn't quite done so I guess we will have to wait

Titus said...

Gays and Trans are not friends.

Rusty said...

""Jenner’s interview will be so widely watched it could prove a tipping point, further normalizing Americans' perceptions of the nation's transgender population.""


Or simply confirming he's a self indulgent nut job.
Just sayin'

Etienne said...

I just read that Lorena Bobbitt is going to perform the penectomy.

Freeman Hunt said...

Why is the T in LGBT? What does it have to do with the others?

Dan from Madison said...

I can't think of anything that I care less about than Bruce Jenner's "journey".

DanTheMan said...

>>Would appreciate a trigger warning before you use the "d" word.
I would appreciate a "Connotation Warning" before you use the "t" word.
I had an unhappy experience with a firearm, and the "t" word is "t-ing" for me, and evokes painful, violence-filled memories.

The burden is on you, therefore, to be more sensitive, lest you blame the victim.

YoungHegelian said...

I can understand the need to change gender out of someone who's in their 20s or younger. But, in your sixties? What the hell is that all about? A compelling need to have someone call you "Grandmaw" before you kick the bucket?

Mark said...

So what is the current correct way of understanding this (knowing that was it correct today according to the LGBT crowd may be monstrously bigoted tommorow by those same people)?

Bruce Jenner was a man and is now a woman?
He is a man and will become a woman?
Bruce Jenner was always a woman?
He is/was a man, at some point became a woman, and next year will flip back again?

Is the thinking that "gender" is changable or that it is fixed?

If he is really a she and always was a she, then there is a big problem. That would disqualify Bruce Jenner from the men's decathalon. The gold medal is forfeited.

Mark said...

The thing is that at some point, someone really will protest that it is discriminatory and bigoted that Mrs. Garrison cannot get an abortion. And an entire army of the professionally outraged will chime right in to demand an end to the injustice.

rcocean said...

A sad end to a great athlete. Too bad. Now whenever someone mentions Jenner it won't be "Oh, the Decathlon winner?" - it'll be "Oh, the nut job?"

Darrell said...

Or not.

Fabi said...

As someone who was c*nned out of a lot of money, there needs to be a warning ahead of the c*nnotation warning. I'd suggest a Stuffed Animal and Crayons warning.

chickelit said...

With a guilty feeling hanging in their brain
And the two of them are potentially insane
Well they've had enough which is more than they can stand
She's a woman and now he is a man
link

jr565 said...

It feels like I'm watching the deconstruction of a once great person.
How could a sane person put themselves through this?

Todd said...

rcocean said... [hush]​[hide comment]
A sad end to a great athlete. Too bad. Now whenever someone mentions Jenner it won't be "Oh, the Decathlon winner?" - it'll be "Oh, the nutless job?"

4/24/15, 3:30 PM


Fixed it for you.


Can't help myself today, am in a weird mood...

ganderson said...

Mike Eruzione still identifies as a man.

Browndog said...

I remember when the "queer" crowd just wanted top be accepted-

yes, we're odd...abnormal, but still people-

Now, "they're" the normal ones... and everyone else is...a criminal for not thinking likewise?

Growing up, my favorite breakfast was Wheaties w/strawberries...

...should have known the "guy" on the box wasn't born that way--it was really a girl...

dbp said...

I was amazed by his Olympic performance: Most of the events are big-guy sports: The dashes, throws, jumping and he was good at all of those. But then he ran the 1,500 at a pace that would have been a 4:33/mile! It was mind-boggling.

I am not sure how much fame and wealth can addle the mind, but I suspect the drop-off in hormone levels as one ages may tip some guys into unfamiliar territory. Didn't Malcolm Forbes become famously gay in late middle-age? Not that being gay and trans are the same, but when triggered in latter life, could it be hormone levels or part of some other kind of senescence?

Browndog said...

Blogger Freeman Hunt said...

Why is the T in LGBT? What does it have to do with the others?


Same reason there is a couple Q's..
One is "Questioning"....

It sounds like you may have move into protective status...hate crimes may be at your doorstep-

PB said...

who cares about Jenner or any of the Kardashians. They are a cancer on our culture.

Anonymous said...

So does that mean that an American woman won the 1976 Mens decathlon in the Olympics?? Cool!!

Laslo Spatula said...

Interview Excerpt Part One:

Diane Sawyer: So -- even as a child -- you felt that you were meant to be a woman?

Jenner. Yes, yes, I did. Ever since I first menstruated.

Diane Sawyer: Wait a minute: menstruated?

Jenner: Yes. It really opened my eyes to my place in the world.

Diane Sawyer: But you were male as a child. Male children don't menstruate.

Jenner: Dianne, this is why it is so, so tough to talk about this subject. Everyone doubts you, they think you are just -- you know -- cuckoo.

Diane Sawyer: I don't mean to doubt you. I realize this is a sensitive issue; I just think the people of America would be enlightened by the… 'physics' of your first menstruation.

Jenner: Well, obviously I didn't have a female's reproductive organs, but I FELT it, I felt it inside -- like inside my heart, you know?

Diane Sawyer: And what exactly did this feeling feel like then, your menstruating from your heart?

Jenner: See? There it is.

Diane Sawyer: There is what?

Jenner: That condescending straight-woman attitude: like MY experience being a woman doesn't compare to yours, just because you were lucky enough to bleed naturally from your vagina when you were twelve…

Diane Sawyer: I do not mean to be condescending -- it is just that there IS a difference, most people would think, between biological menstruation and, well, an empathetic menstruation.

Jenner: You know, since I've begun this journey I never really realized just how hateful women can be to each other.

Diane Sawyer: Maybe we can move along to another subject…?

Jenner: Let me guess: you want to know about my cock.

Diane Sawyer: That IS a subject of conjecture to the public…

Jenner: Sure it is. Cock cock cock, cock cock cock. Everyone wants to know about my cock. Not my hopes, my dreams; no -- my cock.

Diane Sawyer: Well, I --

Jenner: Cock cock cock, cock cock cock.

Diane Sawyer: I just --

Jenner: Cock cock cock, cock cock cock COCK.

Diane Sawyer: Perhaps we should go to a break….

Jenner: Suck it.


I am Laslo.

Titus said...

Trans can be straight-many of them are.

Lewis Wetzel said...

It is sad that the newly minted Ms. Jenner will never be able to experience the glorious feeling of feminine empowerment that comes with aborting her baby.
Perhaps she could adopt an African infant and shoot it?
I'm just brainstorming, here.

Laslo Spatula said...

Dianne Sawyer: How about we return to that special night in Hollywood…?

Jenner: Oh, yes, yes. "The Vagina Monologues."

Dianne Sawyer: What was it about that night: the words? the performances? the overall experience?

Jenner: Well: I listened to all of these women talk about their vaginas, and I just knew.

Dianne Sawyer: Knew what, exactly?

Jenner: That those stories were about ME -- the ME that I was hiding, even from myself.

Dianne Sawyer: It sounds like you experienced an epiphany.

Jenner: I did, I did. I even peed a little, right there in my seat.

Dianne Sawyer: Were you able to share this experience with anybody?

Jenner: Later that night I picked up a transsexual hooker off the street and she put a finger up my butt.

Dianne Sawyer: You were now open to experimentation, is that it?

Jenner: Oh, no, no: I had been with transsexual hookers before, I've had them put their finger up my butt a hundred times. Some very pretty fingernail colors, too.

Dianne Sawyer: So what was it about this particular experience?

Jenner: I just had the realization that the finger up my butt could become a finger in my very own vagina, if only I was bold enough to make it happen.

Dianne Sawyer: This HAS taken a lot of boldness from you, hasn't it?

Jenner: I've learned an important lesson through this.

Dianne Sawyer: And that is…?

Jenner: Being bold doesn't mean that you can't cry when you need to. And -- since then -- I have been bold enough to cry. Cry in the privacy of my room, cry in the car at traffic lights while listening to Cher and Mariah Carey: I have the FREEDOM to cry.

Dianne Sawyer: That is a very wise lesson.

Jenner: Lesson?

Dianne Sawyer: Yes, yes indeed.

Jenner: Lesson, like now I need to take lessons on how to be a woman? Lessons?

Dianne Sawyer: That isn't what I was saying --

Jenner: Don't condescend to me, bitch.


I am Laslo.

jr565 said...

So, he's having a sex change now. But suppose he decided to have a sex change when in his 20's, say when he was in the Olympics. And say he put in his same stats while as a woman. Would women find it unfair that he was winning gold medals as a woman? Or were there be an asterisk next to the name?

Jane the Actuary said...

And then there's this:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/04/23/parents-share-5-year-old-sons-transgender-journey/

Sorry for not adding the html coding, but this was from Drudge. Mom claims that, from the age of 2, her daughter "knew" he was a boy, so, at the age of 4, she changed his name, cut his hair, and moved her to a new school. Sounds like all the kid "knew" was that she liked stereotypical-boy things and was led to believe that this meant that she was indeed a boy.

Anonymous said...

I've never understood the Transgender thing.

Let's take Jenners case.

He's a man who now wants to be a woman. Who wants to be with that? If it's a man, is it a gay man? If it's a straight man, why does a straight man want to be with a man who is trying to be what he can never truly be?

If it's a gay man, why does he want to be with a man who looks like a woman?

Confusing!

Christopher said...

We should get a pool going for the exact date it becomes bigoted to refuse to date somebody who has had a sex change.

Anonymous said...

Blogger Jane the Actuary said...
And then there's this:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/04/23/parents-share-5-year-old-sons-transgender-journey/

Sorry for not adding the html coding, but this was from Drudge. Mom claims that, from the age of 2, her daughter "knew" he was a boy, so, at the age of 4, she changed his name, cut his hair, and moved her to a new school. Sounds like all the kid "knew" was that she liked stereotypical-boy things and was led to believe that this meant that she was indeed a boy.

4/24/15, 6:15 PM


We now celebrate child abuse.

damikesc said...

He wants to become a woman...and date women. It seems absurd.

Kelly said...

Next we'll have to tell schizophrenics that we hear the voices too. We wouldn't want them to feel left out.

Caro said...

I know of NO one who gives a rat's ass about the pervert jenner and his perverted family. People, get a life already. Attention HOGS! And money grubbing fools. Why anyone would watch/pay for viewing such foolishness escapes most sane people.

n.n said...

Jane the Actuary:

kid "knew" was that she liked stereotypical-boy things and was led to believe

That's the more likely explanation, than that their daughter is transgendered. Essentially, the parents are discriminating against their daughter based on their misinterpretation of the child's character or projection of their own personal needs (e.g. preference for a son). Hopefully their daughter is not merely a prop to progress the trans-equality movement.

Lewis Wetzel said...

n.n.-
It seems, doesn't it, that it is the LGBQT fans who insist on rigid definitions of gender behavior? e.g., "You're a little girl who likes to play with toy trucks! We need to set you up with a penis!

Anonymous said...

It will be a lot easier for Jenner to serve time in a woman's prison instead of a man's prison.

averagejoe said...

Having your genitals surgically removed so that you can pretend to be something you're not, is not something that should be normalized.

kjbe said...

I admire his bravery. He deserves to be happy however he chooses.

Ellen said...

We've retired to bedlam.

Static Ping said...

I doubt he will be happy.

Regardless this is a tragedy. It could be a tragedy in that he's imperiling his soul, or because he is denying the reality of who he is (as in he's a man), or because he really should have been born a woman and is essentially genetically defective, or because he is pulling some scam. I suppose there may be other options but I suspect they are all just as bad or worse. It didn't start well and it almost certainly won't end well.

jr565 said...

Terry wrote:
It seems, doesn't it, that it is the LGBQT fans who insist on rigid definitions of gender behavior? e.g., "You're a little girl who likes to play with toy trucks! We need to set you up with a penis!


Seriously! Back when I was a kid the whole idea was that women don't have to wear dresses. Women don't have to choose careers. And boys can play with dolls, and use easy bake ovens. It's ok for guys to be sensitive.
Suddenly though, all these people say they are a different gender because they conform to gender stereotypes.oh you like to put on makeup and your a boy? Off with your genitals.
Frankly I think the whole transgender gender is a social construct idea flies in the face of its own logic.

Take Bruce Jenner. Suppose he thinks he's s woman. Why would he need a sex change? gender as a social construct would allow a man to be a woman in a mans body. Trigenders go through such vicallations every day it would seem. I'm a boy (slap) I'm a girl (slap) I'm a boy AND a girl.

But what does it mean to be a gir (if you're a boy). It means that you are buying into the gender stereotypes that girls are a certain way.

Anonymous said...

Blogger mrs.e said...
I admire his bravery. He deserves to be happy however he chooses.


Bravery is overcoming your emotions.

For example, we're all scared to die when bad guys are trying to kill us on the field of battle. Cowards allow their fear to control them, brave men overcome that fear and face it.

Jenner is a coward who cannot face his internal demons, so he succumbs to them.

RecChief said...

meh - who cares.

Sloanasaurus said...

I thought t was a great interview. I felt I learned something about the struggle faced. Jenner will always be a hero.

William said...

I've never watched their show and have only a vague sense of who they are. They seem to be leading experimental lives. In my estimation, they're failed experiments, but the free market keeps piling money on them. So maybe they know something I don't.......Anyway they're sui generis. I don't think that there are any useful lessons to be learned from their behavior. They're too bizarre to even disapprove of.

rcommal said...

If only those two latter tags were combined into "transgender TV": #cuttingedge

chickelit said...

It has entertainment value only and I'm glad I didn't watch.

It's obvious that this is fruitful, but how does it multiply rather than divide?

Also, how does this perpetuate the species? I am entertained by those who thought it fit to watch.

Curious George said...

Well, the first female on the Wheaties box is no longer Mary Lou Retton.

Static Ping said...

So from what I hear, not having watched, apparently Bruce is a Republican too. And Twitter is already turning on him.

Sometimes I sense that real life is a rejected comedy script. Someone best damn pay me for my laugh track contributions!

Pianoman said...

So if Jenner has "always been" a woman, doesn't he have to return the medals?

He competed in the MEN'S decathlon. Right?

Anonymous said...

Blogger mrs.e said...
I admire his bravery. He deserves to be happy however he chooses.


I take it back. I too admire his bravery, coming out as a Republican.

Dudes crazy, but brave.

Etienne said...

After killing the lady in traffic, the fucker should be on welfare, and the family of the person he killed should be living in his house.

hoyden said...

Having done the transition 32 years ago I can look back without regrets. The surgery was the easy part. The hard part took almost 20 years to work through; sort of like having to adapt after being severed from the Borg Collective. I also understand that the details of my life are TMI and I am grateful for my innocuous anonymity.

Fritz said...

After killing the lady in traffic, the fucker should be on welfare, and the family of the person he killed should be living in his house.

Aw, give him a break, he was too busy worrying about his genitals.

DanTheMan said...

If trans men are really women, because they identify as such and have surgery, was this guy really a cat?

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/death-cat-man-probed-article-1.1201336

Fen said...

Nope. We extended tolerance to the gays, and now they are imprisoning people who refuse to clap for their gay wedding. Launching a little online Kristallnacht at some poor pizza place.

And now the transgender want us to extend them tolerance and normalization? Fuck you, we've seen where this leads, not happening.

hoyden said...

"Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, Stuck in the middle with you. Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you ..."

Mark said...

It seems rather presumptuous in the current climate to say that those to the left are indeed clowns and those to the right jokers. Some of those on the left could really be jokers, and vice versa. To be sure, in this climate, to even say that there is a left and a right is problematic.

All the sympathies in the world for your own personal struggles, but you see the conundrum this creates don't you, where there is no such thing as an objective reality, where it is wrong to even think that there is an objective reality and to persist in holding on to that objective reality?

We are way, way beyond "that depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." Now we are into the territory of "is there an 'is'?"

Mark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mark said...

The fact is -- if we are allowed to have facts -- we are limited creatures. There are things that we can do and there are things that we cannot do. There are things that we can be and there are things that we cannot be. Everything in the universe is subject to limitations.

And, yes, sometimes our human limitations suck. They suck bad. However much I may think that I am or should be 6-foot 5, I'm not. Me declaring it to be does not make it so, much less does it obligate you to cater to my declaration.

Despite what I see when I look out the window, the world is not all fuzzy and blurry. And you should not have to agree that it is. Rather, it would be right for you to tell me to put on my glasses so that I might see things as they really are.

There are a lot of things that I wish were different, but they are not and they cannot be changed. There are limitations to the human experience. No matter how bad it sucks, I am not really taller than I am, I do not really have perfect vision. Reality sucks, but it is reality. And the appropriate response to reality is to acknowledge it and live within it.

If you do not live within reality, then you are not and can never be a free person. You are forever a slave to fantasy and error. And Bruce Jenner is not on a journey to freedom, he is now forging chains that will keep him in bondage. Only in reality, only in truth, can he be free.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Didn't he just kill someone?

How is that not important? Is it impossible to stop the hype train? Does it even matter what people do once the media decides on what story they are going to tell?

Bill Peschel said...

It's heartening to see so many brilliant minds who are capable of diagnosing Bruce Jenner from one of Anne's posts. Moreso for extending the same kind of tolerance liberals tend to show toward conservatives. You should be proud of yourselves.

n.n said...

Terry:

Too many labels. I suggest principled tolerance, rather than selective exclusion. Unfortunately, they are intent on selective normalization and creation of moral hazards. Pro-choice or selective policy has consequences, which they will, of course, leave to the next generation to reconcile.

hoyden said...

I like facts. As an engineer I work with facts every day. It's a fact that I've lived as a woman for 33 years and 29 years in the male role. My identify is not up for debate. When Ann puts up a post with the transgender tag I know there will be plenty of snark and condemnation. Mostly I page over and occasionally I speak up. I made a choice to not sacrifice my individuality and uniqueness on the altar of societal conformity and biological determinism. We are more than the anatomy between our legs. At least most of us.

Alex said...

The Althousian hate brigades are in full force!

Don't worry old, white men. The younger generation will celebrate trans people.

chickelit said...

Don't worry old, white men. The younger generation will celebrate trans people.

Is that what your kids are telling you, Titus?

hoyden said...

Inauthentic, deluded, and disgusting are common responses to the Virtual transsexual that almost never happen in my face to face encounters. So too with accusations of being too feminine or too masculine, and reinforcing gender stereotypes.

I don't claim to know what it's like to be a woman, and I don't claim to know what it's like to be a man. I can speak about what it feels like to be treated as a man, and what it feels like to be treated as a woman.

In the male role my feelings were irrelevant and I learned to suppress them early on. Living life without feelings is a bit like living life half-blind. It's a life I decided was not worth living. I made my choice when the psychiatrists said they could not change the way I felt. That's also when I came to understand that I was heading straight into the storm.

I don't need sympathy or pity. I made my choice in 1982 and I have no regrets.

I thank Ann for providing this space to discuss and explore.

hoyden said...

Here's an article that cuts to the nub of Leftist/Feminist dogma. I did not know Laverne Cox before reading, our lives are dissimilar, and I have no quibble with her perspective.

http://www.playboy.com/articles/laverne-cox-naked-feminist-exclusionism