Tuesday 2 June 2015

On Caitlyn Jenner


The big news at the moment is that Bruce Jenner has officially changed her name (and therefore pronouns) to Caitlyn Jenner. This follows her interview about a month ago in which she had kept her birth name and pronouns, but stated her intent to transition.


Support for her has largely been very positive (and she even broke the record on twitter to reach one million followers in less than four hours). That's not to say that there hasn't been a lot of transphobia too, as well as a lot of plain ignorance too (I'm looking at you, Drake Bell). 

As a cis white woman I can't possibly understand how much Caitlyn must have been through in her 65 years of life. Having to hide your true identity for whatever reason must be a terrible thing. To feel like a lie every time someone calls you 'he', or every time someone uses your name, is unimaginable for those of us lucky enough to identify with the gender we were assigned at birth.

The sheer amount of (largely positive) media coverage Caitlyn is getting will hopefully result in better education about transmen and transwomen and the struggles they got through. People's ignorance will diminish. It'll take time, for sure, and some people won't change, but it will diminish. 

I don't really know what I'm trying to say with this post other than this: I support Caitlyn Jenner, and I will support anyone else who doesn't identify with the pronouns they were assigned with at birth. If I ever misgender you, please call me out on it. It will have been an error and I want to work on that. 

If you're reading this and are confused by what I mean when I say transman or transwoman, what I means when I say 'assigned with at birth', or what I mean when I say cis, feel free to comment below or tweet me, and I'll be more than happy to educate (in private if that is what you would prefer).

And finally, here are a couple of articles about Caitlyn Jenner:




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