Bruce Jenner: Man not Woman

Hannah McNichols, Editor-In-Chief

Cassandra, Bruce’s daughter, says that the two of them finally have a relationship. They “can just be girls together,” she reported. Cassandra apparently gave up on having a father, and has settled for a girlfriend to gossip with.

It’s just wrong. While I feel sympathy for Bruce’s psychological struggles, it’s selfish to do this to your children. First to take their father from them, and then to coerce them into dealing with such a devastating development in front of the whole world.

Of course, while his family takes the brunt of it, the mob trips over itself to congratulate Heroic Bruce. ESPN has even recently awarded him with the Courage Award. There was a time when this award went to guys like Pat Tillman, who gave up his chance at fortune and fame to sacrifice his life on the battlefield, but the honor devolved quickly from there. I thought it hit the basement last year when they handed it to former third string NFL player Michael Sam for achieving the remarkable feat of being gay while playing a game.

Shockingly, it turns out ESPN actually isn’t the most reliable arbiter on courage.

ESPN isn’t alone. A search through Twitter and Facebook reveals unanimous praise, with “brave” and “beautiful” and “historic” being indiscriminately tossed around like so much confetti. It’s all quite sad.

While I seem to stand alone on this most times, I realize that it is not my life and he or she can do whatever they want with their bodies.

There is more to being a woman than “feminized” facial features and frilly underwear. Women are beautiful because they are women. Womanhood is itself beautiful. Women bring something distinct and special to the world. They fill a void and play a role that no man can.

A woman is a woman not merely because of whatever cosmetic feature a man might vaguely emulate. A woman is a woman because of her biology, which Bruce does not share and never will. A woman is a woman because of her capacity to create life and harbor it in her body until birth, which Bruce cannot do. A woman is a woman because of her soul, her mind, her perspective, her experiences, and her unique way of thinking, of loving, and of being — all things Bruce can only mimic.

A woman is a woman. She has earned that title. She pays for that title. She suffers with that title and gives life with that title and lives from conception until death and beyond with that title. She is that title. She should not be told that it’s such a flimsy thing that a man with enough money can buy his way into it. It’s demeaning and reductive.

You don’t get to have a “new” self or another self or a different self or a Self 2.0. Your self is your self. It’s your being. It’s your essential personhood; your particular and unrepeated character. Your self is your body, mind, and soul. It is physically, metaphysically, spiritually, philosophically, scientifically, rationally and logically impossible for a self to change into a new self. A self can only be what it is.

Bruce is not a female. Even though he may have the parts of a female and look like a female now he can’t give birth. He can’t have the biology of a women. He isn’t a female. Let him do whatever he wants but that’s my opinion. He can call himself a female but he isn’t one. He is a he. I will never be rude or mistreat a trans(gender person) because it is their life not mine and I believe it’s not my choice in what they decide to do but in my eyes she isn’t a she.