To prove either that they have reached the pinnacle of patriarchal leftism, or that they are making the biggest joke in the history of mankind (on us), Glamour magazine has named Caitlin nee Bruce Jenner “Woman of the Year.” To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of this award, Reese Witherspoon will accompany him on the December cover.
This is not only absurd, but patriarchal posturing at its finest; not to mention an insult to real women everywhere.
Guys? We’re in Crazy Territory
It was all fun and games—except when it wasn’t—when Jenner announced he was going to begin playacting a woman for the foreseeable future. As if that wasn’t enough, the transgender lobby prodded their ideal posterboy further Left. Next, ESPN awarded him with its Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and he secured his own reality show, “I Am Cait.”
Enough is enough. Glamour goes too far. Jenner cannot be woman of the year because—kids, close your eyes—he has a penis. Jenner might feel like he is a woman, he might want to be a woman, he might be living as a woman, but thoughts do not generate biology or reality. (I’d like to think I’m a millionaire and living in Turks and Caicos year-round, but that doesn’t make it so.)
The fact that Glamour is even passing this off as some kind of convoluted, uber-progressive fact is absolutely mind-bending. It’s as if we’ve taken the blue pill a long time ago and Neo is actually Trinity. When “The Matrix” is the only working analogy, we have a problem.
This Is a Cultural Ploy
The progressive left is to culture what Hollywood is to “House of Cards:” Sure, there’s some real elements incorporated, but some things get exaggerated—or altogether lost—in the shuffle. Grant it, this is Glamour. It’s not like we expected them to pick Laura Bush as woman of the year. So one could consider the source and just as easily shrug it off. But as a college professor once said, “A movie is never just a movie,” and likewise a magazine cover is never just a magazine cover.
By choosing Jenner as woman of the year, Glamour endorses the idea that men are better at being women than we are. Glamour is sending a clear message about a new kind of feminist-driven patriarch, who pushes women out of our spaces and expects submissiveness of their feminist enablers. Transgender women tend to be hyper-aggressive. Remember when Zoey Tur told Ben Shapiro he’s going out in an ambulance? Martine Rothblatt, a transgender woman, graced the cover of New York Magazine as highest-paid female CEO in the nation. Apparently real women can’t cut it, so we’ve got to import men into our ranks to win awards.
Perhaps this just shows a split among liberal feminist types, but doesn’t it seem odd after hearing them rail for years about men setting standards (even for things like heart attack symptoms) that we’re now supposed to be hailing someone who’s lived all his life as a man as an exemplar of all that is good among women? Now women don’t even get to decide for ourselves what marks the best and most impressive qualities of our own sex? That feels ideologically oppressive.
If anything, Jenner should win man of the year for winning woman of the year. Usurping a women’s award is pretty much the most male thing ever, is it not?
This Is Insulting to All Women
As a bona fide woman with real ovaries and breasts and who’s experienced countless menstrual cycles and given birth to four babies—all uniquely female issues—I’m slightly offended a man was named woman of the year. Men boast their own unique strengths, but so do women. To laud a man for living as a woman is to insult and patronize women who have borne and overcome incredible odds and achieved great successes because of their uniquely womanly traits.
If we’re going with a man for woman of the year, why not consider Vladimir Putin’s suggestion: Barack Obama. More sincerely, why not the three American men who subdued the gunman on the train in France? Surely acts of sacrifice and heroism warrant more praise than dressup.
As for women, what about Dafne Almazan? Just barely a woman, at 13, she has become the world’s youngest psychologist and according to Forbes is one of Mexico’s 50 most powerful women. This year on her birthday, Malala Yousafzai, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize (the youngest winner ever), opened a school for Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border. Yousafzai was targeted and nearly killed by the Taliban for advocating for women’s education. She, too, is a worthy role model.
If Glamour’s staying stateside, why not consider Elizabeth Holmes, the college dropout who developed technology that can retrieve blood samples easier, cheaper, and with only a few pricks to the finger. Her partnership with Walgreens pharmacies is growing. Heck, even Taylor Swift would have made a better woman of the year, if only because of her philanthropy.
Kayla Mueller was an American relief worker whom ISIS members captured, held hostage, and repeatedly raped. Before she was killed, she reportedly tried to protect other women who were forced to be sex slaves, too. What about the quieter resolve of the mother who, diagnosed with cancer a second time, refused treatment that would harm her baby in utero and succumbed to the disease when her newborn was six weeks old? I’ve undoubtedly left out dozens of other women who have embraced their unique qualities and left their mark on 2015.
It’s time to stop the patriarchy-reinforcing posturing about Jenner’s transition. He may have his own show, but it need not go on in real life the way it does on reality TV. It’s patronizing to women because it overlooks their very makeup. It’s demoralizing to women who have used their gifts, led by example, and made the world a better place.
Correction: The author suggests Glamour consider Elizabeth Holmes to receive its award. In fact, she has already received it. View the complete list here. We regret the oversight.
