If you are alive, you may have noticed in the last couple of weeks that everyone is talking about Caitlyn Jenner. Formerly Bruce Jenner, she revealed her new feminine look on the cover of Vanity Fair. Even if you’re trans-friendly, you may have thought that there was a lot of coverage.
First of all, that’s the Internet. Kim Kardashian’s “Break the Internet” picture was everywhere after it came out, and that was not important from a social justice perspective.
Second of all, while excessive coverage can get annoying, it’s a little myopic to comment that those in the military are braver than Jenner so she doesn’t deserve accolades.
Let’s look at the facts: a survey based in Ontario said that 77 percent of trans respondents said that they had seriously considered suicide and 45 per cent had attempted suicide. As well, 20 per cent had experienced physical or sexual assault due to their identity, and 34 per cent were subjected to verbal threats or harassment. In general, LGBT people face discrimination while searching for jobs and housing, they are susceptible to hate crimes, and have high rates of anxiety, depression, self harm, and more. So in my opinion, if the Caitlyn Jenner coverage causes trans people to, I don’t know, stop killing themselves, that seems like a win to me.
A man named Terry Coffey made one such Facebook status, posting a photo of two soldiers and said that was what real American courage looked like. Interestingly, the photo was a still from a documentary about a man who was beaten up after some strangers found out he liked cross-dressing. The man made mock-ups of WWII scenes to help stimulate his mind after suffering brain damage from the attack.
Look, going into war is brave. But so is going against society when you know the possible outcomes are mockery, harassment, assault, and death. It’s not like there’s a shortage of bravery in the world. You can call a soldier brave. You can call a trans person brave. Admiring Caitlyn Jenner for coming out does not mean that everyone basically thinks soldiers are garbage. That’s a dumb view. What’s cool about words and opinions is that they are not finite.
Jenner recently received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from ESPN, and a meme quickly made the rounds stating that the runner-up was a disabled army vet named Noah Galloway who was obviously more deserving. There was much outrage (this is the Internet, after all) because if Jenner got that recognition, then Galloway would never get any, ever. The only problem is that it wasn’t true; there is no runner-up for the Arthur Ashe award.
And it’s not limited to this one situation, either. On Reddit, any woman who posts a picture with herself in it will get accusations of wanting attention and karma (the imaginary Internet points awarded on Reddit). For some reason, the Internet makes people think that there are shallow reserves of attention to be sparingly paid out to everyone. A girl poses with a picture of her cat? We can’t possibly upvote that because that may mean the inventor of a cancer vaccine won’t be able to get that upvote in the future and then where would society be?
You don’t have to be happy about Caitlyn Jenner’s transition. You can be neutral. It’s okay. But hating on the coverage because somehow this will stop people from appreciating soldiers doesn’t even make sense and unfortunately, says a lot more about you.
