Transitioning
Through
TRANSPHOBIA
By Chelsea Lucero
Bruce Jenner's Transition In The Media
Bruce Jenner, former Olympic athlete, is currently transitioning from a man to a woman. This transition has been scrutinized by the media, and he is openly discussing his choices. Sexuality and Identity is a personal process, and being in the media does not allow any personal reflection to occur.
Before understanding Bruce Jenner's transition, it is important to understand what transgender really means. Transgender is usually seen as being an umbrella term. This term can be used to "describe many groups of people, such as transsexuals, cross-dressers, and transgendered individuals"[1]. The characteristic that all of these groups of people have in common is that their gender does not match the sex category they were placed into at birth. Sex is usually discussed as being a biological concept. In biology, two sexes are created: male and female. The transgender community does not identify with the sex they are born with. Confusion often takes place when individuals believe the transgender community is the same as individuals who are intersex. Intersex is actually when a child is born "with genitals that are not clearly male nor female"[9]. When this happens, the medical doctors in the situation make a decision, and conduct a surgical procedure. Individuals who are transgendered did not necessarily have a procedure completed at birth to assign them a gender. They are clearly born as either male or female, and as they grow they realize they do not identify with the gender they are born with.
Bruce's Family
Bruce is the Patriarch of the Kardashian family, and ex-husband to Kris Jenner. Their family is under the constant media spotlight with various reality television shows, as well as involvement in the fashion industry. through Bruce's transition, the media is not only aggressively asking Bruce about his story, but they are also asking all members of his family. Although this star family is under the media microscope at all times, this matter is personal. The family as a whole is reacting to the media in a very supportive and comforting way. News channels, magazines, news papers, and social media sites all feel the need to comment and criticize Bruce's family and the story of his transition. The "gossipy" details that are spread can be detrimental to his emotional well being, and could create large amounts of stress on the entire family. [6][10]
“Bruce is very happy, the happiest I’ve ever seen him. And he’s, you know, our dad, so we support him no matter what,” Kim said. “And I think when the time’s right, he’ll talk about whatever he wants to talk about. I just feel like that’s really his journey to talk about." [6]
SUPPORT STAFF
Why is Gender Identity Important?
A gender identity is one of the most important factors about an individual. It is human nature to want the feeling of belonging to a specific group, or to be able to identify with other individuals who are similar in some way. For those reasons, identity is something that individuals strive to find, sometimes without even realizing it. Bruce Jenner does not identify with the male sex that he was born into. His transition is his way of striving to find and become gender identity.
One reason why his transition is so largely in the public eye is because there is a sting of transphobia presented in the media. The public is facinated with the idea of something different and unknown. The Trans* community is different and unknown for a large majority of the American population. Because of this, Bruce Jenner's transition is publicized to a hightened extent. The label that is attached to the Trans* comunity has a stigma because of the lack of education in the general public about what transgender means. Labels can be empowering because we are reminded of "what makes us all alike and recognisable, [and] what is true about ourselves" [11]. However labels can also be constricting in the way that it is designed to obscure the real human diversity with the strict categorisations of uniformity"[11]. Unfortunately, once Bruce was labeled as being transgender, there was a stigma and an automatic glare of transphobia cast upon him because of the lack of knowledge.