I’m glad that we finally have an opportunity to hear Jenner tell us Jenner’s story.
For decades, Jenner has been unable to express who Jenner actually is. And much of the reason why is us — Jenner played a part, for decades, largely because of us.
Now, a lot of you know, if you’ve followed my blog at all, that I’m an anti-theist and a liberal. Jenner is a conservative and a Christian.
If this were about my story, I would probably rail against religion — and I have, elsewhere, and will again. I would probably insist on liberal interpretation — as I’ve done several times, and will do again.
But this is not about my story.
This is about Jenner’s story. So all our obsessions and self-consciousness about gender boundaries, all our selfish desires to force Jenner to be someone Jenner is not in order to stroke any sense of cis masculinity ego, and much of the desire to press Jenner into service for our individual agendas…even I have to admit that doesn’t really matter here and now. What matters is Jenner’s story.
Not because Jenner has all the answers, or knows how to solve all the prejudice against transgender people, or because Jenner is the end all and be all of how to solve our problems with views on gender in society. The mere fact that you are a prisoner does not mean that you have the knowledge to bring justice to the system that locked you up. I mean, if Jenner does have all those answers, then awesome, but that’s not why I’m listening to Jenner.
For 65 years, Jenner didn’t get to tell us Jenner’s story. Jenner told us Bruce Jenner’s story, a story of a hypermasculine man who served as the symbol of masculinity for us. Jenner’s story was silenced and, then was pressed into service for years as a punchline for cheap jokes. Jenner hasn’t really been able to tell us Jenner’s story for a long time.
So let’s listen. Apparently Jenner hasn’t got all of life figured out, to hear Jenner tell it, and although Jenner talks about Bruce Jenner, who Jenner refers to as “him,” in the third person, Jenner is not completely ready, it seems, to publicly reveal the version of Jenner’s self that is “her” yet, fully, for fear of how the media will react.
But Jenner is finally, after 65 years of telling us the story we wanted to hear, excited to tell us Jenner’s own story. Even if Jenner hadn’t given us Bruce Jenner, for a time the greatest athlete in the world and the ultimate poster-child for a masculinity Jenner did not feel, we would still owe it to Jenner to listen to Jenner’s story.
But given the added fact that Jenner told us, through tears and personal anguish, our own story of Bruce Jenner because of how much Jenner was concerned about our opinions…given the fact that Jenner gave us the mike to define Jenner’s life, in spite of tears and anguish…given that we insisted on holding the mike as Jenner began to reveal Jenner’s own self…
After greedily grasping onto the mike of someone else’s life for so long, we are way past due in giving it up. However hard that is, I’m sure we can all agree that it is not as hard for any of us as it was for Jenner to tell a story that was not Jenner’s own for all those years.
The least we can do when the Jenner finally steps out from behind the curtain, worn out from a lifetime playing a part to entertain the millions even through tears and anguish, torture and fatigue and shame, is shake Jenner’s hand in profound respect, give Jenner a hug, and let Jenner finally tell us a story that is Jenner’s own.
And where we can set up amplifiers, open ears and minds, improve clarity to the watching world, silence hecklers, we should do so, I think. That’s the job of us bloggers, as I see it.
But right now, we’re not on stage.
Finally, after 65 years, we’re getting to see Jenner enter, out of character.
At the least, that deserves a standing ovation as Jenner takes the mike:
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