I’ll admit that the Kardashians are one of my guilty pleasures. After a long day, it’s nice to de-stress by watching their ridiculous drama! I’d never considered the Kardashians as educational in anyway, until recently. The head of their family, Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, is very publicly announcing his transition from a man to a woman.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxX3t2rzLbg[/youtube]
I was honestly shocked when I first saw the commercials and magazine headlines announcing Bruce’s transition. My shock turned into true respect after I watched his interview with Diane Sawyer (I’m still referring to Bruce with male pronouns because that’s what he stated he wanted in the interview). I think it’s a really positive thing to have such a public and renowned figure come out as transgender and document their transition. I also think that our country and culture has come a long way, but there is still a lot of violence, hate, and opposition towards those who are transgender. By having Bruce as an unofficial spokesperson giving out information in a positive light, maybe this community can be more understood and accepted. Regardless of your own opinions about the Kardashians, I think everyone can agree that Bruce is brave and deserves respect during this process.
I really like that you brought this up since it is a very common conversation in media and for followers of the show. When I came home there were so many commercials for the specials that are following his ‘journey’. This show is also one of my guilty pleasures and when I saw that there is a Keeping up With The Kardashians marathon basically every day I obviously watched them. As I was watching I noticed that Bruce had a lot of feminine personality traits that I hadn’t noticed before. He was also made fun of for his womanly hair and his more feminine hygiene habits. I think it will be interesting to watch the specials to see if his personality will be more feminine than they were before.
I, like you, have been very interested in this topic. At first I had my doubts about all of it, whether it was serious, or just for public attention. After watching the Dianne Sawer interview, as well as the “about bruce” specials from the Kardashian television series side my mind was changed. I feel bad for having questioned his transition. It is an all too familiar truth for those in the public eye to manipulate stories to benefit their careers but after watching and learning about his story and struggles I don’t believe this is the case.
Bruce Jenner mentioned in the interview with Dianne Sawer that he hopes that sharing his story will help others understand they are not alone. I think that as you stated, society is changing, slowly but surely. It is refreshing to see. I am interested to see how the public continues to react to his story, and transformation to “her” and to see how the Keeping up with the Kardashian’s series discusses what is going on. I think that it is something to learn from, whether it is on a reality TV show or not.
I have heard so much about this over the recent weeks and I do not understand why. Do not get me wrong whatever Bruce Jenner does is fine with me but I do not understand why people care so much about this. People change genders every day. I understand this is a celebrity but in all honesty I would just let Bruce have peace during all of this and spend time with his family. There is too much press for this one thing that i believe not many people should care about it is Bruce’s business what he does and let it be at that.
This is such a hot topic right now in the entertainment business. Your post got me thinking, over the last year we have heard rumors, the press and media has been shaming him over distinct changes that made people curious such as nails, long hair, and more surgery. It was all negative press, until Bruce, respectively “came out” (I do not know if that is the correct term for transgender), to the public. After this point the press quit throwing out hate rumors and started respecting the true bravery of Bruce Jenner, I wonder what changed?
Over the past two days there was a featured two part special on Keeping Up with The Kardashians, “About Bruce”, of course I was glued to my television screen (It is also my guilty pleasure), but I found it so interesting to see the Kardashian side of family ask questions, it was more casual then the Dianne Sawyer special. This show got me thinking how we are all so about the transgender changing and their bravery that we forget about the family. The Kardashians are of course accepting, however they have questions, anger, happiness that their Father will be herself, worried about the backlash, and one quote kept hearing them say “I have never been through this before so I don’t know how to deal with it, or how react”. I hope this class gives a wider outlook on this issue, and I hope that the World will be more welcoming to transgenders and their familes after watching Bruce Jenner and his bravery.