When I was in high school, Bruce Jenner became world-famous, as well as a national hero, by winning the gold medal in the decathlon.
That was then and this is now.
When I wait in line at the check stand I sometimes notice front page tabloids lampooning his "transformation" from a quintessential jock to an effeminate male. He looks like an aging drag queen.
In one sense I find the coverage refreshing. It's a throwback to when effeminacy was stigmatized.
It is, however, surprising that in a political environment where you can instantly lose your job for "transphobic" vibes in the ultrasonic range, tabloids can get way with ridiculing his self-emasculation.
It says something about the pop culture when tabloids are the last bastion of natural law morality in that regard. But comedy often trumps political correctness. A humorist can still say things the rest of us aren't allowed to. The satirical vein of Jenner is just too rich a mother-lode to resist mining for 24-karat nuggets of comedic ore. He's still a gold medalist, only it's comedic gold, and the joke is on him.
Even the ever-decadent tabloids are a witness to residual morality in that regard.
My younger co-workers seem to know only of the Bruce Jenner who was married to a Kardasian. I joke around with them by telling how I remember when Bruce was on the Wheaties box and was an attractive, normal looking jock. Now, after upteen plastic surgeries, he looks like an alien.
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that transgenderism, which requires a recognition of the distinction between genders, is the antithesis of feminism, that seeks to erase gender differences. I wonder if the two liberal factions tolerate each other because they hold liberal ideology, whatever that might be aside from the plethora of special interests, to be a higher goal.
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