Bruce Jenner: A Womanhood Role Model

Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, has lived a life of performance. At age 66, Caitlyn has won an Olympic gold medal, fathered six children, and, most recently, transitioned from male to female. For many people, even my father, reconciling with the fact that his childhood role model is no longer a man is difficult. However, in Jenner’s tell-all E! series, I Am Cait, she reveals, though she was born anatomically a male, for her entire life she always knew she was a woman. She crossed dressed and painted her nails for years trying to identify as a woman, if only for short periods of time. Being born male, Caitlyn never felt comfortable in her skin, so for people like my father, realizing that Caitlyn performed what she knew to be male for 65 …show more content…
There is no strong evidence of female literary history, which only reinforces English to be a male dominated field. I argue, using similar logic, that a younger Caitlyn Jenner would have received less support due to the fact that “traces” of womanhood are not at the center of athletics.
Athletic is a descriptor most used for men, while beautiful is a descriptor most used for women. Judith Butler argues that our bodies permit perceptions of self and others. Therefore, following Caitlyn Jenner’s transition, the discourse surrounding Caitlyn Jenner changed due to her appearance. When people talk about Jenner, they don’t talk about her years competing in the Olympics, rather they discuss whether or not they liked her dress when she gave her acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS.
“Acts and gestures, articulated and enacted desires create the illusion of an interior and organizing gender core,” wrote Butler (Norton, 2549). Now that Jenner expresses her true womanly self, her body, in all of its materiality, is now a canvas for people to dictate where she can or cannot participate in