Actually, let's back up. I almost stopped reading that post when the author at "Motherhood...Unscripted" mentions the she is a Christian woman. I guess that statement reveals my own prejudices fairly well, doesn't it? I never said I was perfect. I am working on it. Being open to some one's words is a baby step in the right direction, I think.
My biases (that I SWEAR, I am working on!) are the subject of another post (or three) another day.
Okay, so the internet practically exploded when Caitlyn Jenner revealed her new, gorgeous self in Vanity Fair.
The haters came out almost immediately with the pictures. I won't give them credit by posting any examples, but .5 seconds of Googling will get you many. On one hand, I get it. I don't condone it, but I get it. It can be frightening when people don't follow the "norm". It makes us question reality and our own place in the world and that is really, really scary. It's much easier to see the world in black and white and wrong versus right, than to see the infinite shades of gray. It takes a whole lot of thinking and who has time for that? (Sarcasm...sorry.)
Seriously, though. Wouldn't things be much easier (for you) if people just stayed who you thought they were? And that is precisely my point. What YOU think about someone else might have very little or nothing at all to do with who they really are. As parents, our kids grow out of the roles we assign them. They get tattoos and girlfriends that you won't necessarily like. They get to decide how to live their own lives...as scary as it seems. We did it, with varying degrees of success, and they will too.
How we react, however, is all on us. I think it is healthy to ask why, because only in questioning can we get to understanding, or at least, some level of acceptance. In this case, I think the first, and only question we need to ask is: How does Caitlyn Jenner's life affect me? I can only answer for myself. My answer is: Mostly, it does not. I say mostly because she has said that she is a Republican; and Republicans with money can and DO affect my life.
(again, this is a post for another day)
The only other way Caitlyn affects me, is that her spread in Vanity Fair gives me one more unattainable model of beauty to reach for. It is slightly disheartening that a sixty-something, former man, can look that freaking great in a corset. I mean, those legs! Those breasts! Those collarbones! Sigh... Then again, if I could be made up and dressed by professionals, then photographed in soft lighting by Annie Liebovitz, I would probably look pretty hot, too. It would definitely be better than yelling at my kids or husband to stop shooting me from under my chin while trying to hide behind my tallest child.
Caitlyn, in the end, is just a human being. She has asked to be called "she" and I respect that. It is her body, after all. She still has a penis. As confusing as that may be, in the end, who cares? She has had that penis all her life. I can imagine she is pretty attached to it (no pun intended...really). That penis ran across the finish line along with the rest of (eventually to be) her and collected a gold medal in the decathlon in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Maybe it is this that has people so bothered. How can Caitlyn be Bruce and vice-versa? I honestly don't have the answers to that. Caitlyn herself said in the Vanity Fair article that she still screws up her name. So, it's okay if we are confused, too.
It's just not okay to be mean, or belittle those who feel as she does, or others' who don't quite fit into the neat little boxes that we wish they would. I repeat: It is NOT okay. If your reaction to Caitlyn is one of anger or hatred, I suggest that you take a good look at yourself and ask why?
