Whenever anyone mentions the Kardashian/Jenner family, all we think of is “attention whoring.” Let’s be realistic, nothing good ever came out of this family. From Robert Kardashian being O.J Simpson’s attorney for his murder trial, to Kim Kardashian making an empire out of a supposed leaked sex tape, to their reality shows – ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ featuring the Kardashians and the Jenner family, to ‘The Hills’ featuring Broody Jenner along with numerous other reality shows he was involved in.
No one really expected anything good from the family until recently. Ex Olympian Bruce Jenner, former track and field athlete, father of the Jenners, and step father of the Kardashians recently announced that he’s a woman. Many people, including myself, thought it was another publicity stunt for the show. He was immediately attacked by the media and everyone was waiting for the Kardashians episode where he “comes back to his senses.”
None of this happened; he decided to talk about his transition publicly during an interview with Dian Sawyer, not on ‘Keeping up with the Kardashian’. If you watched the interview, you’ll realize he’s been actually transitioning since the 80s which makes a lot of sense and explains his dramatic plastic surgeries.
Trans people have been around for ages and were extremely common throughout history. In the modern times, it became sort of a taboo, even though it still exists. What makes the case of Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, very special is the fact that “Bruce” was a symbol of manhood. Bruce was the strong, good looking, all-American man whom every man wanted to be and every woman desired. Bruce’s popularity has made the coming out phase special and turned mainstream. SHE became a public awareness figure for people and for the topic.
Caitlyn may not be the best example for the trans community because she’s wealthy enough to afford all the surgeries and psychological support other trans people don’t get. She is, however, the best person to make people actually go the extra mile and educate themselves on the topic.
Most people don’t know anything about gender topics. Who are Transgenders? What’s the difference between Transgenders and Transsexuals? Are they cross dressers? Are they gay? Many questions are never answered.
Sadly, in the Middle East, our perception of the Trans community is that they are mentally sick people who do it only for the sex. These are the only people who “come out” here, and we never had a Trans symbol in our society. The only person we ever heard of who was known to be a trans was actress Hanan El Taweel ; she was depressed and eventually took her own life.
Even though I’m a big supporter of the LGBT community, I don’t know everything about trans topics. I’m certainly not the best person to be explaining it either. I’m still educating myself about their situation, and trying to understand more about it.
The fellows at Buzzfeed took a special interest in the subject, and have been making videos explaining what it is, the difference between the terms, what gender is, and how they came out. Educate yourself, people, before you start judging!
