Reposting my post from another thread:
I watched the TV interview. I believe there are things in the brain / hormones that we don’t understand. I believe he found himself unable to ever be comfortable as himself because his brain, inside, felt female.
I have seen men on Lupron, removed from their male hormones. A man much like your burly macho freeper self, reduced to weeping at car commercials. A lot of what makes you such a manly guy is your hormones. Sometimes you see a heavyset older man on TV who has a “feminine” look to his face? Like that man who is on the left in the Triple Crown TV coverage (Costas on the right)? That is a man who is becoming estrogen dominant. Hormones do amazing things.
I have seen a wife, totally uninterested in sex, and a rather laissez faire wife, take testosterone replacement enough to meet a normal female level, suddenly not just be interested in and enjoy sex with her husband, but literally feel like she was in love with him again. Suddenly getting excited to see him after the work day. She was herself SHOCKED that hormones can bring back love and interest. She always loved him but the “thrill was gone.” Correcting her T levels brought back the thrill. Need I tell you how thrilled her husband was??!
With that said, my perspective is different from all the 103 posts I have read. I think he is a helpless victim of a brain dysfunction. He tried for 60 years to live the way YOU ALL insist he should. And as a male, he achieved more manly stuff than most. You cannot deny that; none of you have won Olympic decathalons. Yet deep inside, he was about as happy as you would be if you were trapped in a life not your own.
Right now in Western Civ 2015, the solution to this illness is to allow / encourage the person to try life as the gender of their brain. About half the people are then happy doing so. The other half sometimes end up feeling worse, or at least not that a problem was solved.
The culture today is to be half-mocking, half-patronizing to these people’s bravery. Sometimes the very same individual will mock these transition people amongst his closest friends, and in public be expansively supportive.
We may need a better solution to people whose brain gender doesn’t match their genitals. I have no idea what it is. But I will respect this new Caitlin as Bruce’s best attempt to fix his illness. I truly don’t have a better solution he hasn’t tried.
I’m sad that my beloved FR has ONLY full on mocks and put downs, with not one post of kindness toward someone, a conservative himself, with a brain problem that he couldn’t help.
That's like addressing a brain tumor by removing a kidney.
I’ve been wondering if his condition is a result of hormones/steroids/doping for the Olympics.
If he wants to dress like a girl and act like a girl, that's his business. But the medical community should not perform elective genital mutilation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_dysmorphic_disorder
When someone has a serious mental illness, playing along with their illness is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Agree completely.
Amazing how so many people assume the brain’s sexuality matches the sex organs 100% of the time and nothing can go “wrong”.
We all have our own problems.
I think the problem many people have with this (I know I do) is: Do you think that Jenner would have gone so far without all the media attention he is getting. What part of brain dysfunction (which I don’t discount) includes a large dose of narcissism? The need for approval? The desperate need for attention at all costs? Because those are brain disorders as well.
Also, if Jenner had not had the money to pay for all of this plus already posses the celebrity necessary to promote it so heavily in the media, how far do you think he would have gone?
I have some personal experience of this in my own family. In my estimation a great part of it is about gaining attention and sympathy. Once the attention is removed, the person loses interest in persueing it to the level that Jenner has ... plus the lack of money. It costs fortune to do what Jenner has done. How do we deal with people who want the same as him (including the massive amount of attention)?
I guess in the end it comes down to: What does society owe to people with brain dysfunctions? How far do we go with that, given the fact that almost everyone has some type of personal problems (mental, physical, financial) that could be claimed to be society’s duty to alleviate?
And then there is always the option that he is a pervert and needs to be slapped upside the head.
I read your entire comment. I have no pity for these people. Don’t want them dead, but just sickens me how the LSM focuses on these deviants.
Can you tell me there was no photoshop involved on that cover? Didn’t think so.
It’s fraud pure and simple.
Right now, Western Civ 2015 is rapidly sliding down the drain, and folks like you making excuses for perverts are pushing it along.
I wish Bruce the best too, but the emerging long term research does suggest that increased happiness is not a certainty, though statisticly the risks for things like suicide, mortality and psychiatric morbidity are higher than the general population. Personally I think reassignment, like amputation in my examples, is at best a questionable form of therapy .
Another potential downside is the fact that widespread acceptance will require gender identity disorder to be dropped as a psychiatric diagnosis, presumably ending research into other therapies.
"Apotemnophilia is a fetish in which people wish to become an amputee. They find sexual satisfaction and ultimately, happiness, through the act of the removal of limbs or simulating the removal of limbs. There are websites, message boards and get-togethers devoted exclusively to the activity. As a general rule, society doesn’t consider this to be healthful. Some of us may accept it, ignore it and move on with our lives, but we don’t praise it or trot apotemnopheliacs out as heroes. And let’s be honest… most of us think it’s pretty damn weird.
Now, change that limb to a penis. If you don’t accept it, even worse, if you don’t praise it, you’re deemed hateful.
Do you accept an apotemnopheliac cutting off their arms, legs? If not, why is there a difference when it comes to a penis?
To answer your original question of why people are mocking him, I want to acquaint you with a concept of which you may not be familiar. It is called "the Uncanny Valley."
It is a little understood human characteristic of reacting with fear and anger towards anything that tries to mimic normal human behavior, but is obviously not close enough to be believable.
Seeing a man attempting to fool us into thinking he is a woman activates all sorts of natural defense mechanisms in men. There is a deep seated angst against being fooled by people or things pretending to be something that they are not. Instinctively we assume that attempts to fool us are likely an attempt at predation or murder and therefore represent an existential threat to us.
It's just creepy.
As long as Jenner is going to use his psychosis to be a TV star and say he is normal, and that he intends to “change the world" I will continue to mock him.
And I'm a little pissed off that I read your whole stupid post, btw.
Agree 100%.
The idea that we know everything about the human brain, or that there can never be a huge problem with a major organ (the brain) is silly. People are born with birth defects every day, and we accept them. Who is to say that this one?
I don’t feel or think the way Jenner does, but accept that he/she does. I would be kind to him/her if we met.
You can make a man "look" like a woman with surgeries, hormones and makeup. But, all you're doing is changing the outside appearances. They are still a man, down to every last cell in their body. You can't alter science with political correctness (except of course with Climate Change science).
I agree w/ your post and thoughts on this issue.
I actually have had a long discussion w/ various people about ‘transgender’ ... what it means ... why it’s such a topic of conversation these days.
I believe I misunderstood what a transgender person was ... as in I thought that term only applied to a person who had an operation. But as I understand it now ... transgender has more to do w/ how the person feels internally ... for whatever reason ... about who/what they *should* be. I don’t pretend to understand what would cause this and I would not wish anyone to be transgender as it must be a sad sort of life. Independent of what other people think ... but more about what/how that person thinks about themselves. Heartbreaking to not be comfortable with *what* you are.
Re how a less than rich person does this ... I actually do know someone who is going thru this transformation who is of average income. That person has had to save and do ‘it’ in stages. There will be no operation re genitals. This person has hidden their entire life ... and by hidden I mean hidden their body in so many layers of clothing one would not know their sexual identity. This person had name changed to a non-gender specific name when they were 18.
Sad. Nothing to celebrate ... but nothing, IMO, to mock or ridicule. I can only be glad it wasn’t me and pray this person, at some point, can accept themselves and find some joy and peace in their life.