Isn’t she beautiful, gorgeous, hot? Sexism and Caitlyn Jenner

I am late to take my kids to camp, and I have no time to blog today, but I’ve got to write: I AM SO SICK OF THIS CAITLYN JENNER OBJECTIVISM. ARGH. EVERYONE STOP!!!!

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A few weeks ago, after Laverne Cox, also transgender, posed nude for Elle I blogged:

Is Laverne Cox posing nude cause for celebration?

Ideals of female beauty vary over time and geography, but what’s consistent in patriarchal culture, whether the idealized body happens to be Rubenesque or Twiggyish, is that women are shown naked. (For a gallery of images, please see my post Why do men feel entitled to women? A gallery of reasons) Cox has has a unique opportunity to publicly redefine what it means to be a woman, and I’m disappointed she’s sexualized here. There’s nothing new or celebratory or original about a woman posing naked.

I don’t get why all of a sudden, if the naked woman is over 50 (like Julia Louis Dreyfus on the cover of Rolling Stone) or plus size, we’re supposed to do a 180 and be grateful for the sexism. Look, she’s 50 and topless! Isn’t that wonderful? People still think she’s pretty, men still want to fuck her, she has value in the world!

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A few of you were upset with me for criticizing Cox. Cox is on her own journey, she has to so what she has to do, but I was blogging my reaction to her photo. Here is what Cox has to say today, in response to the attention given to Jenner:

Many have commented on how gorgeous Caitlyn looks in her photos, how she is “slaying for the Gods.” I must echo these comments in the vernacular, “Yasss Gawd! Werk Caitlyn! Get it!” But this has made me reflect critically on my own desires to ‘work a photo shoot’, to serve up various forms of glamour, power, sexiness, body affirming, racially empowering images of the various sides of my black, trans womanhood. I love working a photo shoot and creating inspiring images for my fans, for the world and above all for myself. But I also hope that it is my talent, my intelligence, my heart and spirit that most captivate, inspire, move and encourage folks to think more critically about the world around them.”

Here is Jon Stewart:

“It’s really heartening to see that everyone is willing to not only accept Caitlyn Jenner as a woman, but to waste no time in treating her like a woman,” Stewart began. “You see, Caitlyn, when you were a man, we could talk about your athleticism, your business acumen, but now you’re a woman, and your looks are really the only thing we care about.”

 

 

 

8 thoughts on “Isn’t she beautiful, gorgeous, hot? Sexism and Caitlyn Jenner

  1. Bruce is not a woman, he believes in stereotypes of womanhood that are harmful to actual women. Men do not belong in women’s spaces. That includes all men. Men like Bruce who fathered many children, impregnating real women and using their bodies for his gratification. Men like Laverne Cox who went to a religious school and was made to be ashamed of being a gay man. He felt that to be feminine and love men, he must be a woman.

    Transgenderism is the sterilization, torment and elimination of gay people. It is the perfect opportunity for straight fetishists like Bruce to invade women’s spaces for their own gratification. It is justification for and the result of the sick, relentless sexism of our society. I hope you somehow find the truth about it, reelgirl. I think you know it in your heart that strapping on fake breasts and tottering in high heels is not womanhood. Women are female human beings, exploited and forced into a box by men, who then imitate the femininity THEY created to oppress us and call it womanhood.

    • Hi Anna,

      Your comment simplifies and degrades the transgender experience. It’s hateful responses like yours that make it challenging to hav eusrful discussion about gender.

      Margot

      • What makes them a woman Margot? Gender stereotypes? As a feminist, you should realize how insulting that is.

        Before calling me hateful, think of girls like Ebony Nicole Williams. Ebony was 12 when she was raped and murdered by a male who then claimed he felt like a woman and should be in a woman’s prison. Grant Ebony the respect of reading her story before you defend men like Luis Morales, and Laverne Cox, who campaigned for a child murderer rather than that little girl.

        Before you call me hateful, look up men like Jessica Hambrook; who sexually assaulted 3 women in a homeless shelter under the guise of ‘identifying as a woman’.

        Before you call me hateful, look up what drugs are being given to children who are ‘gender non conforming’. Lupron is extremely dangerous.

        Before you call me hateful. Read about the mother who ‘knew her son was a girl when he said he wanted to marry a prince.’

        I used to feel the way you do, and my comments are not thoughtless. I campaign for the safety of women, the health of children, and a society that will one day give up the idea that girls and boys have different brains.

        • Hi Anna,

          I don’t think girls and boys have different brains and I’ve been called a terf. I still find your description of trans people reductive.

          Margot

          • I can’t say I understand what you mean by reductive, because you haven’t explained. You have been called a terf because your belief in feminism and that boys and girls are not different brained is considered transphobic. Trans ideology requires that you believe girls are feminine and boys masculine.

            You must know Bruce Jenner feels no desire to alter his male genitalia. Most men who claim to feel like women have no operation of that sort. They feel they have a female brain.

            If you argue that men can become women, you are making it easier for predators to gain access to girls and women. A man who broke into a home and sodomized and tortured a mother and daughter was placed in a women’s prison because of his identity. Convicted male rapists and child molestors are now legally entering women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.

            If I’m being reductive, I fear you’re being blinded by your kindness and willingness to accept men at their word that they are harmless. The one study done regarding transgender males and violent crime shows that these men commit rape and murder at the same statistical rate as non trans identifying males.

            You have been called a terf because part of you sees the truth.

        • Just before you start hanging people:

          Christopher Hambrook was not trans.

          Laverne Cox publicly said is she had know about the details of the Ebony Williams case she would not have read the letter from her killer.

          I’m going to call you, at the very least, very selective in the information you use in your arguments.

  2. I agree that are society objectifies and our bodies shouldn’t be the only thing that people care about. However, just because a woman is on a cover naked doesn’t mean she is being objectified by the camera man or magazine. For some posing nude is showing their strength, “like here’s my body it’s mine I get to do with what I want, don’t like it too bad. I’m a strong beautiful woman so deal with it” if you see the naked people as sexualized that’s on you. Yes some are very sexualized and that is wrong, but to me the Laverne Cox photo was a woman showing her strength and courage. I’m just tired of people including woman sexualizing stuff when it isn’t. It’s ok to be naked, naked doesn’t = sex.

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