Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Caitlyn Jenner to Womanhood: “Your Looks Are the Only Thing We Care About”


from Slate

Video [not from article] at


Image [not from article]  from, with caption: Nancy Reagan photo with Lab School Honorees Tom Cruise, Bruce Jenner, Cher and Robert Rauchenberg in State Dining Room. 10/30/85.

On June 1, the world met Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair, and TV commentators competed to see who could compliment her looks most effusively. But the compliments often came with a nasty subtext. (Sure, Jenner looks good for her age, but is she hotter than stepdaughter Kim Kardashian?) On Tuesday night, Jon Stewart responded to the media frenzy with a sharp, feminist critique.
“Caitlyn, when you were a man, we could talk about your athleticism, your business acumen,” said Stewart after showing clip after clip of TV news reporters gushing over every detail of Jenner’s appearance, while simultaneously comparing her attractiveness to that of other women. “But now you’re a woman. Your looks are really the only thing we care about.” It was the perfect takedown of the double-edged attention that Jenner has attracted since she came out as trans.












Laura Bradley is a Slate editorial assistant.

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See also, on Jenner and re-inventing oneself in America [image from entry]

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