'I Am Cait': a Show About a 65-Year-Old Man Who Likes to Wear Dresses, Nothing More
I mistakenly tuned in to the premier episode of “I Am Cait” thinking that the show was about a transgender guy. Instead, I saw a show about a 65 year old guy who likes to wear Atelier Versace.
This point crystallized in a scene just over halfway through the show, when Jenner sits down for a heart-to-heart with his mother, Esther. The conversation intended to highlight change. Instead, it did just the opposite:
>> Esther: The problem before with you and I, I... I'm guessing this-- you felt uncomfortable with me. We would see each other, and it was like you wanted to get away.
>> Caitlyn: At that point in my life, I was very much an isolationist. I would isolate myself from the world on many, many, many, many occasions. 'Cause I never felt like I fit in anywhere. I didn't fit in with the male side, I didn't fit in with the female side. You're kind of stuck in the middle. I feel like Caitlyn fits in a lot better into society, uh, than Bruce ever did, 'cause Bruce, uh, had to lie about all that sort of stuff, where Caitlyn's kind of got a place.
>> Esther: But Bruce will always be in there. Your values are always gonna be the same.
>> Caitlyn: Oh, same. I'm still the same person.
>> Esther: That's not changing. That's your soul.
>> Caitlyn: Yeah, that's your soul-- that's exactly right.
>> Esther: You-you have the same soul you were born with.
>> Caitlyn: Yeah.
So, if Bruce still has the same soul, same values, is the same person, and is still biologically and anatomically a man, then absolutely nothing has changed. Right? I mean, if Jenner is the same person in terms of both substance and science, then all these pleas for acceptance and tolerance are not the cries of a woman seeking understanding. They’re the cries of a male senior citizen going through a rather massive late-life crisis.
What’s also clear from watching the show is that Jenner’s idea of becoming a woman is completely superficial and should be highly offensive to all women. I’d venture to say over 70% of the dialogue in the show has to do with dresses, make-up, hair, or breasts. Not that these aren’t topics women normally discuss. But whereas most women discuss these topics while working a job, taking care of kids, taking care of houses, taking care of husbands, or doing any number of the myriad of things women do, for Jenner, that’s his whole day.
His brand of “womanhood” is something akin to what people might expect a real-life Barbie doll to go through, where he has all the fun and none of the responsibility that goes along with being a woman. This point is driven home later in the show when Kim Kardashian comes over to visit, and she and Jenner spend all their time bustling through all the different clothes that all the different designers sent to Bruce.
Topics of greater weight than pastels and pumps came later in the show when Jenner welcomed Susan P. Landon, a gender consultant from the Los Angeles Gender Center, to his home. I’ll give you a second to process all that. Okay, moving on. Landon sat with Jenner’s mother to help her better understand transgenderism. What follows is a mess, of biblical proportions:
>> Esther: You know how little boys outgrow their clothes?
>> Susan: Yes.
>> Esther: I took you to a store, and you did not want those clothes on you. (Caitlyn laughs) You were trying to pull them off of you. And I was trying to get them on you. And you didn't want them. And I thought, "He just doesn't want new clothes." Would that have been in his person, then, that he would rather have had a dress?
>> Susan: Oh, absolutely. Let's say for a minute that that's what he would have preferred to wear-- sorry. She.
>> Caitlyn: It's quite all right.
>> Susan: I meant "He" then.
>> Caitlyn: You got it.
>> Susan: ...She would have preferred to wear. 'Cause pronouns are really important, everybody. So if that, at that point, is what she had wanted to have, she probably wasn't able to pick it, okay? And then, when children get older, they notice the reactions of other people.
>> Esther: But they, the...
>> Susan: They start taking in information-- like, "This probably isn't gonna be okay, so I better fit in."
>> Esther: Yeah.
>> Susan: And if anybody tried to fit in more than you, I don't know who it was.
>> Caitlyn: I did a good job, yeah. (Laughter)
>> Esther: But the child has no idea why their reaction is that way. For instance, the clothes.
>> Susan: But by the time they're about five, they start figuring it out.
>> Esther: Now, I'm sure you've read the passage in the Bible about if you dress... If you're a man and you dress like a woman, you know...
>> Susan: Yeah.
>> Esther: Do you have any, uh, interpretation of that?
>> Susan: Um... I'm not a biblical scholar, so I don't know exactly what that verse represented to people at the time, obviously, but for me, personally, Caitlyn is a woman, and really always has been.
What’s hilarious about this is that even the gender consultant got confused and called Jenner “he.” She apologized for it immediately. But apparently even the “professionals” can’t figure this out.
Jenner’s mom had many questions, and referenced Deuteronomy 22:5, which reads: “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these thigs is an abomination to the Lord your God.”
The gender consultant could not bring herself to admit that the Bible verse in question means exactly the same thing today as it meant when it was written! The verse is completely clear and unambiguous in what it says and its intent. Yet, all the consultant can respond with is some psycho-babble about how, “…for me, personally, Caitlyn is a woman, and really, always has been.”
Sorry, but Landon’s pronouncement that Jenner is and always has been a woman, after knowing him for all of 8 minutes, is incredibly dumb. Nor, does the Bible’s meaning and the definition of sin change to fit Jenner’s definition of himself. The same way criminals aren’t free to ignore the passages in the Bible that deal with stealing, cheating, and murder just because “they don’t see themselves” as thieves, cheats, and murderers. The Bible tells us what a sin is in the eyes of God so we know how we will be judged. How we see ourselves in no way changes that fact.
The Good Book gave no wiggle-room or awkwardness. But if it’s awkwardness you want to see, I give you Kanye’s introductory hug to his new step-dad/mom/in-law. You’re welcome.
