pop tart: BY STEPHANIE ENG your bimonthly dose of pop culture
let’s talk about Caitlyn on the media coverage of America’s most famous transgender woman
It is only in recent years that transgender people have begun to see their stories represented in popular culture. Faces like that of Dancing With the Stars contestant Chaz Bono and co-director of The Matrix Lana Wachowski are becoming increasingly common. Award-winning TV shows such as Orange Is the New Black, Transparent, and Glee, have received critical acclaim for featuring complex and well-written transgender characters. Openly transgender models such as Andreja Pejic and Hari Nef are picking up contracts with IMG Models, representing highfashion brands like Givenchy. And of course, this month we “called her Caitlyn”. In case you’ve been living under a rock,
Caitlyn Jenner is an accomplished Olympic gold medalist and a peripheral character in the Kardashian reality show circus, making her the most famous transgender person in America. Her decision to pose for Annie Leibovitz and to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair was a huge step towards widespread visibility for the transgender community, as it marked the coming out of a household name to all of America. This caused an overwhelming outpouring of reactions, most of which were positive and supportive. As Orange is the New Black actress Laverne Cox stated on her Tumblr, “It feels like a new day, indeed, when a trans person can present her authentic self to the world for the first time and be celebrated for it so universally.” 18 | JUNE 2015 | BUST
pop tart: BY STEPHANIE ENG However, the media has a tendency to sensationalize and oversimplify transgender stories, and I have to get on my soapbox to point out some of the damaging ways that Caitlyn Jenner’s story was portrayed. It is important to remember that as journalists, it is our duty to speak up for the voices of those who are not heard, to tell the stories that are not being told, and to tell them both inclusively and accurately. Long before the Vanity Fair cover, there were already speculative and offensive headlines that made a mockery of Jenner’s gender identity. The media was obsessed with telling Jenner’s story for her, even before she stepped forward to tell her own story. A tabloid magazine called In Touch Weekly edited and manipulated Jenner’s face to look as though she was wearing makeup, and, to add insult to injury, used Photoshop to place her face on another woman’s body (see image on top left). The headline boasted, “Bruce’s Story: My Life As A Woman”, even though Jenner herself had not yet said a word about her transgender identity. On her blog, prominent transgender activist and media specialist Janet Mock explained, “By publishing this cover, In Touch Weekly tells its 400,000 readers that it is acceptable to assume someone’s gender, scrutinize their body, and publicly shame them in the process.”This sort of reporting only adds to the harmful portrayal of transgender people as spectacles, rather than as people. Mock continued on to say that there is no excuse for publications that aim to humiliate by labeling a person as transgender, “as if being trans and being a woman [were] an insult”. Even if it wasn’t directly malicious or disrespectful reporting, many publications and news outlets had trouble with calling her Caitlyn and using her chosen pronouns. Her Vanity Fair
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cover specifically states “Call me Caitlyn”, which is a clear expression of Jenner’s preference, so the media should have immediately switched from Bruce to Caitlyn when reporting on the story. Since she was a very well-known public figure by her prior name, it was initially appropriate to say “Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner”, but now that the public has learned her name it is no longer okay to refer to her as Bruce. Using a transgender person’s former name rather than chosen name is disrespectful of the choice that person has made to live as their authentic self. Another problematic aspect of the media coverage of Caitlyn Jenner’s story was the misuse of pronouns. Pronouns may seem like a minor detail, but most transgender people have pronouns that they prefer when it comes to talking to or about them. PEOPLE Magazine consistently refused to embrace gender-neutral pronouns such as “they” in their discussions of Jenner’s story (see top right). PEOPLE defended their use of the pronoun “he” when describing Jenner, conforming to the standards of the AP Style Book. “Since his family currently uses the pronoun ‘he’ to refer to Jenner, PEOPLE is doing the same.” However, when reporting on transgender stories, it is best to ask the actual person involved rather than rely on family as a source of information. Family members can sometimes be misinformed or unsupportive, leading to pronoun confusion. Caitlyn Jenner prefers female pronouns, so she should be referred to as Caitlyn with “she/her/ hers” pronouns, even when detailing events in her past. Asking for and using preferred pronouns is crucial to aiding transgender people in their search for identity, community, and equality, and helps prevent the spread of ignorance.
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pop tart: BY STEPHANIE ENG
Many of the reporters who discussed Caitlyn’s story talked about the “lies” she told, and how her decision to come out at age 65 made her a less genuine person. It is never appropriate to imply that someone who comes out as transgender is being deceptive for keeping the information private. People who come out as transgender often face family rejection, unemployment, housing discrimination, and physical violence. All transgender people have to brace themselves for the potential effects of coming out and living as their authentic selves, so it is their right to be silent until they feel safe to disclose that information. Along this vein, some radical feminists seem to have adopted the idea that transgender women threaten the idea of womanhood. Elinor Burkett is a published author and well-known feminist activist who recently published an opinion piece in The New York Times entitled “What Makes a Woman?”. In it, she argues that transgender women minimize the feminist cause of “actual women” and that the idea of becoming a woman feeds into gender constructs and is damaging to the
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feminist cause. Burkett provided a response to the Caitlyn Jenner story that hadn’t been said before, but feminism is not exclusive to cisgender women, and it is extremely problematic to imply that transgender women are only pretending to be women. On the subject of womanhood, the incessant discussion of Caitlyn’s appearance is worth mentioning as well. The idea that a person’s selfworth is inexplicably linked to their appearance is damaging to people of all or no genders, but transgender individuals, particularly transgender women, are often hyper-sexualized by the media. As Jon Stewart pointed out in an episode of The Daily Show entitled “Brave New Girl”, the media “wasted no time treating [Caitlyn Jenner] as a woman”, emphasizing her sexuality, age, and appearance over her bravery, past athletic achievements, or love for her family. (see above) When the media constantly discusses the way a transgender person conforms to conventional standards of femininity or masculinity, it is both reductive and insulting. Caitlyn Jenner does indeed look beautiful, but that is less important than her courage in embracing her identity so publicly.
Laverne Cox discusses similarly reductive reactions to her Time Magazine cover, explaining that, “In certain lighting, at certain angles, I am able to embody certain cisnormative beauty standards.” However, many transgender people will never be able to embody those standards, either because of genetics or because of lack of access due to systemic discrimination. Many transgender people do not even want to embody these unrealistic and unattainable standards because they want to be seen and respected as their authentic selves. It’s important to honor Jenner’s decision to not only come out, but to share the details of her transition so openly. Her visibility adds another layer to the framework in which society views transgender women. “By sharing her journey with the world, Caitlyn Jenner is accelerating acceptance of transgender people everywhere and reminds us all how important it is to live as your most authentic self,” said Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. Janet Mock and Laverne Cox both celebrated
Caitlyn Jenner’s authenticity and courage while also speaking up for important issues that are just as deserving of the media spotlight. They also brought up the context of Caitlyn Jenner’s privilege and how that related to her media exposure and coverage. Caitlyn Jenner spent most of her life being perceived as a white male Olympic gold medalist, and as the patriarch of one of the most famous reality TV families in America. According to Mock, it is because of the media’s fascination with celebrity, transgender women’s bodies, “makeover” shows, exorbitant wealth, and whiteness that Caitlyn Jenner “has been seen and heard on a level that no trans woman or trans person ever has before”. It is her wealth, visibility, and influence that have made her one of the most recognizable transgender people in America. Jenner’s privilege is what allowed her access to 20/20, Vanity Fair, and the upcoming ESPY awards. Being privileged does not make her a bad person, erase her accomplishments, or make her undeserving of praise: it just allows her to have a louder voice.
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pop tart: BY STEPHANIE ENG Laverne Cox explains, “What Bruce really wants to come out of this, beyond not being able to transition privately, is that people’s lives will be saved and that people will be helped by this. And this is always my hope. And I think that’s when visibility matters, when it can save lives and influence the changes of hearts and minds.” The transgender equality movement aims to serve a community struggling to live authentically while overcoming economic instability, overpolicing and incarceration, lack of access to quality, affordable healthcare, criminalized survival economies such as sex work, high HIV infection rates, and the extremely high rates of violence against transgender women of color. It is the hope of the transgender community that Caitlyn will use her influence to help change the current state of transgender affairs, and she seems to be upholding that expectation. Mock explained, “I’ve found her to be quite intentional, sharing her spotlight with those who have not been granted her level of access.” In her 20/20 interview, Jenner mentioned the names of other transgender women in media like Carmen Carrera, Laverne Cox, Geenda Rocero, and Janet Mock, and discussed the violence that transgender women of color often face. Just as Janet Mock followed in the footsteps of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Christine Jorgensen, Jenner stated she is also following in the footsteps of the women who have occupied this “public space” before her. Another aspect of Jenner’s privilege is her appearance. She internalized cisnormative messaging about aesthetics in her Vanity Fair article, saying, “I was always worried—you never wanted to look like a guy in drag, you never
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wanted to look like a guy in a dress…If you’re going to…come out, you really have to look the part. You have to look very feminine…what I call my presentation is extremely important because it puts people at ease.” Opinions on appearance vary within the transgender community. One of Elinor Burkett’s valid points was where she explains that wearing a dress or having long hair is not what makes someone a woman. Janet Mock explained that “not all trans people care about putting people at ease. Let me be clear about that.” However, for many transgender people, being able to blend in is a matter of safety, a barrier against all the resentment and intolerance transgender people often face. Caitlyn Jenner is unique in that her wealth and status has granted her access to healthcare that far exceeds healthcare received by most transgender people. The facial feminization surgery that Caitlyn Jenner underwent is almost never covered by health insurance. Mock explains that Jenner’s wealth enabled her to pay “tens of thousands of dollars” for these medical procedures. So while Jenner’s transition appears to be quick and straightforward, this is not representative of most transgender people’s experiences. It would take decades of risky underground activities for most transgender people to accumulate the funds to accomplish what Jenner has, if at all. Mock explains in her blog post about Caitlyn Jenner that the ability to “look the part” is a “life-saving privilege, one that many trans people due to economic barriers or the randomness of genetics and puberty frankly will never be able to access.”
Journalists often tend to over-emphasize the medical aspect of a transgender person’s transition. Medical procedures are only one part of transition, if a person choses to undergo them at all. Reporting on or speculating about transgender people’s medical procedures “objectifies transgender people and prevents the public from seeing the transgender person as a whole person” according to a GLAAD article the provided guidelines for reporters writing about Caitlyn Jenner. Not only is it a total breach of privacy to publish details of personal medical information, but also it is a harmful perpetuation of the idea that transgender identity is dependent on medical procedures. Hayden Mora, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Human Rights Campaign, explains “I believe that the more people who know transgender people, the more they will understand, accept and support us. That happens only if they acknowledge our humanity, and [don’t] treat us like tabloid fodder.”
It is part of our mission here at BUST is to tell the stories of marginalized groups in order to enact social change. Therefore it was very important for us to contextualize Jenner’s journey, but also to help our readers understand the vast diversity of all transgender stories. Caitlyn Jenner’s story is just the beginning. No one person can or should have to represent all transgender people. Laverne Cox explains that “we need diverse media representations of trans folks to multiply trans narratives in media and depict our beautiful diversities”. It is only by creating awareness for and properly discussing transgender stories that we can give the transgender community a voice. As such, I can only encourage my readers to learn about and advocate for transgender equality, and to speak about these topics as loudly and inclusively as they can. Then, and only then, can we move toward a world in which we are all celebrated for living as our authentic selves.
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