In an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Bruce Jenner has confirmed to the world what many already suspected, that “for all intents and purposes, I am a woman.”
The strangest reaction to this news that I have seen thus far comes from the reliably strange and terrible Janet “JudgyBitch” Bloomfield, who seems to think that Jenner is transitioning out of jealousy of the attention the world pays to Kim Kardashian and her sisters.
Here’s Bloomfield:
Jenner lives in a house filled with crazy, beautiful and incredibly wealthy women who use their looks to generate enormous amounts of income. Surely, it must be clear to him and everyone who watches these fame whores that the power to use tits and ass and turn it into cash resides with women. … Bruce is now set to join the powerful women of his clan as one of their own, and good for him.
Where to even start? At 65 years old. I’m pretty sure that Jenner isn’t looking to use “tits and ass and turn it into cash.”
Bloomfield points out some of the amazing benefits she’s convinced herself Jenner will gain as a woman:
Now that he’s a woman, or soon will be one, the media goes mad to offer him the kindness they deny to men. You can bet the feminist media in particular will trip over themselves to provide Bruce the woman with all the support they routinely refuse to offer men. Bruce now no longer needs to be taught not to rape, because he has magically lost the ability to rape, amirite? Bruce will now be the automatic victim of domestic violence (assuming it’s a man who hits him and not one of those psycho women he lives with). Bruce is now under no obligation to provide evidence for any accusations of sexual assault he cares to make.
Wow. I guess life as a trans woman is one big domestic-abusing, false-accusing party. Who knew?
Bruce is joining the privileged caste …
As a society, we simply don’t give a fuck about men’s pain. …
Bruce Jenner has solved his problem and closed the empathy gap in a way very few other men can. He became a woman. For the vast majority of men, that isn’t an option, nor should it have to be.
If you need me, I’ll just be here banging my head quietly on my desk.
NOTE: I had used the “he” pronoun in this post because I had read articles saying that was Jenner’s preferred pronoun for now, but it seems that was just for the interview. I’ve reworked the post to remove it.
Best to call people by what they tell you they prefer, when it comes to pronouns. Seems like the most respectful course of action.
At least we might get some guns and buildings shaped like vaginas. Phallic symbols are pretty played out from a design perspective.
I’m cis, so please take this with a grain of salt, but I have heard some trans people say that they’d like to do away with the idea of “preferred” pronouns because “preferred” implies that there’s some room for negotiation.
There’s correct and incorrect pronouns. That’s it. You don’t call a chair a spoon simply because it makes you feel more “comfortable”.
Though, I imagine that’s up to the individual, of course.
@Scarlettathena
I’m pretty sure to him “no one cares about men’s pain” means “no one cares that I feel oppressed cause I don’t have a hot blonde and a 6 figure job.”
Some additional examples:
My Brother’s Keeper – President Obama’s initiative to provide hands on mentoring and support for young men at high risk
Transitional housing and social services programs for men have been increasing. So are all boys charter schools.
But let’s be honest. These are not the men/boys that red pillers mean when they say “No one cares about men anymore.” These are men/boys that red pillers couldn’t give two shits about.
What they really mean is “my place at the top of the food chain as an able-bodied, healthy, white, cis, hetero, middle class, Christian man is now being threatened.” That’s what they’re angry about.
I feel your pain, bro.
http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/81/a8/81a89ed907548bc788b54b3d3ccf0bc2.jpg
Thanks Misha
Love that picture by the way.
It’s funny because it reminds me of a (true) story a farmer associate told about a cow that went missing for months in some crop fields. It’s impossible to convey the way he told it and his descriptions of how the cow hid behind the crops as they harvested them until there was like one stalk left with the cow trying to hide behind it.
Is it just me, or is that cow _ridiculously_ pretty?!
Right. A Multiple-gold-medal-winning athlete will NOW be one of the privileged — by coming out as one of the least-privileged groups in the country.
Completely off topic, but I was {horrified, disgusted, not really surprised} to see this comment on a UNFPA Twitter about providing supplies to women in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake:
@UNFPA Are similar kits provided to men? Men need everything in the kit just as badly (except for sanitary napkins). #NepalQuake #MRA
2:35pm – 26 Apr 15
https://mobile.twitter.com/unfpa/status/592319749301768192
Ah yes, those trans women, just rolling around in all that delicious privilege.
I don’t even have a coherent argument to refute this because it’s too fucking stupid, so here is a kitten stealing pancakes.
http://i.imgur.com/xJBlJn0.gif
@1000
Classic MRA. Whenever anything to do with benefiting women is mentioned their first response is not “oh good” but “why aren’t men (especially I) getting any of that? No fair! Misandry!”
…
Ever read anything so mind-bogglingly stupid it gives you a brain fart?
Earthquake relief is misandry now? I’m assuming the kits are going to women because that’s where the greatest need is. Especially since women are usually the main caretakers of children. Is there nothing these fuck heads won’t whine about?
RE: Lea
The media is kind to trans women? Does JB purposefully confuse making shit up with reality or is she genuinely that befuddled?
I dunno, but there’s a lot of weird cis people who seem to think that trans people are treasured by society. It’s STRANGE. I’m like, “…do you actually KNOW any trans people? In real life?” Because uh, I know quite a few, and can easily think of two disownments, one pushed into sex work, two folks who became homeless…
RE: apeculiarpersonage
In this case, where there seems to be some confusion over Jenner’s pronouns, would it be appropriate to use they/them pronouns?
Honestly, when I’m not sure, I just don’t use them at all. It makes me sound like Rorschach from Watchmen but it works.
OMG what is wrong with that woman? I’m going to SHUN HER. I’m going to ignore Judgy Bitch.
>_> so I’m doing a translation on the daily lives of people in underprivileged countries. There’s a section about the 2004 tsunami pattern of fatalities by gender. Women suffered BY FAR the biggest loss of life among the two genders. There’s a lot of reasons for this: they were at home while their husbands were at sea, they were encumbered by carrying children or because of traditional clothing, they didn’t know how to climb or swim because they had been taught not to do these things when they grew out of girlhood…
Natural disasters tend to hit underprivileged classes WAY MORE heavily and I cannot really understand how so many people in the world fail to grasp that the genders ARE NOT EQUAL in our present society. This is why feminism exists! This is why disaster relief kits go to women!
I have no idea what is going on in Nepal, but I bet that a bunch of different factors have contributed to making women some of the hardest hit groups in this disaster. Hopefully relief will reach ALL OF THEM men and women.
What the fuck, Nequam?
Yeah, that’s what jumped out at me, too. The trans part is kind of expected, he’s been tentatively hinting at it for years in terms of his appearance…but the Repug part? As you say, THAT is a privileged caste if ever there was one. And Judgy, having not the brains that Goddess gave a gently stewed spaghetti squash, didn’t even touch that!
PS: Made a new FB friend yesterday…a fellow feminist who also flounced from that same group. Same reason as me. Suck it, transphobes!
@4th
“Society don’t care about mens pain”
The main problem is that, society, as a large group of different people don’t care about anyones pain directly. As human beings, and we all are, we sadly seems to care mostly about our own pain, and the pain of people close to us.
There are some people that tries to change that, and making society as a whole care more about everyones pain, a lot of those people are feminist, some don’t want to call them self feminists, but they still have several political opinions in common.
So, when you state that society don’t care about mens pain, you are correct, but the more interesting question is what do we do about it? We could leave it as it is, but that doesn’t really sound like a way to improve things. We could try to make society care more about the pains faced by men, and only the pain faced by men. If we did though, we would be hypocrites, or we could try to create a more caring society in general.
No matter which option we choose, we then end up with the question, how do we change society for the better, and there are certainly many options, of which feminism is one. Not only that, but feminism have succeeded in a lot of changes for the better for everyone since it’s creation.
If you happen to have a different idea about either how society should be, or which way is the best one to go about changing it, feel free to discuss that civilly with well reasoned arguments, and a general attitude of trying to understand where your opponent comes from.
I’ve waited for awhile before commentating because I wanted to see the interview and the reactions afterwards. Bruce (as they are currrently still known as) was very dignified and overall it was an excellent interview.
They have added to a number of prominant transgender people ‘coming out’ (so to speak) and this has aided we transgender people tremendously by helping demystifying things to the public at large and giving us postive role models for we young and older people with Gender Dysphoria (GD)..
Bruce has added to two Austalians both in different realms and from diffferent ages groups, recently expressing themselves.
Firstly Andreja Pejić who bravely told everyone she had GRS (Genital Reassignment Surgery) even though she had been told it would harm her career. Yes she has the privilege of beauty but she has shown great moral courage.
Secondly Colonel Cate McGregor the highest ranked transgender woman in the world, who came out on Australian TV on the ABC show “Australian Story’ and then later in a superb National Press Gallery speech and question and answer time. Her story resonated with me as mine had many similarities as like myself she was a late transitoner. She is also an excellent communicator and explains how she felt through her life and how she dealt with it with a rare honesty and dignity.
For example: She went back to the psychiatrist who said ‘it’s a no brainer you are transgender’. “I was waiting for somebody to say ‘here take this pill and all will be fine’ sayd Cate ‘ and he said it won’t be fine can’t you see that’…..’ ‘I am surprised you’ve got this far’ .
I was like that when I was diagnosed, part of me totally stunned and scared and another part of me happy.
And as she says: “McGregor realises now that Malcolm’s (her male name) macho aggression was masking something much deeper, much more disturbing. ‘‘A death wish was driving me.’’. She refers to a study of 150 trans women over 30 years. ‘‘They were massively over-represented in alpha-male professions, risk-taking, hyper-masculine pursuits. Probably the three most obvious trans military women in the world are myself, Ayla Holdom, who was a jet fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force and now flies helicopters, and Kristin Beck, the former US navy seal. She was in the team [as Christopher Beck] that busted Osama Bin Laden.’’.
I did many high risk things similar to that (and the alcoholic level of drinking), I think as an attempt to ‘cure’ myself…..worked real well…lol.
So Bruce has done well by adding to a narritive for normal people to understand us better and to show those with GD who, like myself in the past are tortured and suffering, that there is a positive way forward and that it is never too late.
I personally never really understood just how much my GD affected me until it started to lift after I began transitioning and I remember saying ‘wow, this is nice, is this what feeling normal is like’ and I had never felt like that in my life before. Only then did I realise how much GD had hurt and twisted and distorted and damaged my entire life. Just getting some ‘peace of mind’ at last was such an incredible feeling and I had never had it though my entire life.
So every step forward in public understanding and visible role models helps those who are suffering right this moment, to give them some help and hope and to see someone else and realise ‘I can do that as well and be content’.
“Privilieged caste” my ass, in my country it requires sterilization to juridically change your gender and we’re a baltic country. Even EU has pressured us to change the law because it offends human rights, but we’re still no closer to it, heck we’re still trying to get the equal marriage law into action but the conservative parties keep fighting it like it’s the end of the world. Plus we recently had another election so now our parliament consist mostly of our three most conservative patries, so yeah not good for the trans law for another four years. My friends are literally planning to move to Sweden because they’d like to have kids one day. We’re taking so much crap here I can’t even imagine what it’s like in the US.