Posted: 8/3/15 at 12:53am
No complaints, and in the final three minutes (8/2), for even the most vocal detractors, s**t just got real. I still can't shake how much Cait looks like Hillary on "Love it or List it." If anyone cares, it's a compliment.
Updated On: 8/3/15 at 12:53 AM
Posted: 8/3/15 at 11:14am
I only saw the last 15 minutes but it's so fascinating to watch a person who coasted through life living off the laurels of a singular athletic achievement 4 decades ago come face to face with smart people who don't ever seem to have been dumb jocks. The tension between Caitlyn's vapid California platitudes ("A nice view makes me optimistic!") and the reality of the lives of people for whom coming out meant anything but Caitlyn's "freedom" (or maybe "free-dumb" to honor her past life as Bruce?) isn't what I expect from reality TV.
What I DO expect is the head of HRC to manage to weasel his way in and for some reason facilitate the discussion with transwomen, since HRC manages to weasel its way into everything. This appearance is quite an achievement, though, since employees of the HRC are on record as saying it's an incredibly transphobic place to work.
Posted: 8/3/15 at 11:47am
I finally got around to seeing the first episode. It was very interesting and I liked it more than I thought I would. Cait's meeting with her mother and sisters was my favorite part of the episode.
Posted: 8/3/15 at 12:12pm
The political angle is probably where they're going to get the most reality-show conflict. I doubt Caitlyn has very clearly articulated conservative views, so it's going to be a Kardshian-level discussion and not Vidal vs. Buckley.
It's just a matter of time before her "Poor people can make more money not working than working" causes a fight. And probably, because it's Cait's reality show, it will come out with her critics looking rude or mean or, as the right likes to call the left, "bullies."
Posted: 8/3/15 at 12:19pm
I think it's more likely we're going to get the thing that the Real World (same producers) perfected on MTV. It's when the inevitable white blonde girl with the thick Southern accent bursts into tears and sobs that it's not fair nobody never told her using the word "colored" was racist, and it's not fair that nobody never taught her about trying to understand that not everybody has the same privileged circumstances as the one she came from.
Like her Real World forebears, Caitlyn WILL be the victim but she won't say "colored" anymore in front of the cameras.
Posted: 8/3/15 at 3:09pm
Such is reality TV!
http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/caitlyn-jenner-auditioned-actresses-i-am-cait-bff/
Posted: 8/3/15 at 3:19pm
"All I really want to do is slip into society," says Cailtyn Jenner, on her reality show about her gender transition that she has promoted in absolutely every way she can think of.
I don't think I can keep watching this. I respect Jenny Boylan, though. She's smart and real and saying what most are thinking.
Updated On: 8/3/15 at 03:19 PM
Posted: 8/3/15 at 3:55pm
I went back and watched the first 45. Jenny Boylan wins the series for saying, as she's submitting to the Caitlyn M*A*S*H unit that does her hair and makeup, "I can feel my IQ dropping," and Caitlyn squeals "Noooooooo!". It's sort of perfect. Can the intense, political, smart trans people who bring a high level of articulateness to the discussion find ANY common ground with the likes of Malibu Caity? Caitlyn basically seems to want, more than anything, the ability to be unselfconscious in her womanhood but has spent her entire life self-absorbed. This internal tension is so perfectly parallel to the tension between Cait and the other trans women.
[If you're reading this, sandman2, I still have not said the show is great.]
Posted: 8/3/15 at 7:43pm
I do think she's trying and that she is realizing more and more that she has a lot to learn. Being cis (that word seems so weird, but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it), I for sure feel like I have much to learn myself.
https://twitter.com/Caitlyn_Jenner/status/628256468391735296
http://caitlynjenner.com/2015/08/we-have-to-make-things-easier/
How far ahead of air date are these episodes for the show filmed? Does anyone know? Just curious.
Posted: 8/3/15 at 9:11pm
"she is realizing more and more that she has a lot to learn"
Which is the exact reason she should NOT be a spokesperson for anyone. She needs to be in the trenches for a few more years and find out what it's like for the many, less privileged trans community.
Posted: 8/3/15 at 11:36pm
Which is the exact reason she should NOT be a spokesperson for anyone. She needs to be in the trenches for a few more years and find out what it's like for the many, less privileged trans community."
How exactly can you stop her from being the best known trans woman in the world, though? And what you are suggesting is what she is doing on her show, by not claiming she knows anything and giving other trans woman who do know the issues an opportunity to raise those issues because of her visibility and platform. I see it that Caitlyn and a lot of people watching the show are encountering these issues for the first time are all learning about the community together.
She could have met with other trans woman to learn about the issues in private and then started speaking like she knew her stuff, but she isn't doing that.
Posted: 8/3/15 at 11:37pm
Excellent point, TheatreDiva90016. You're right. That would be the ideal. But the thing is, she's out and famous, and whether she wanted to be a spokesperson or not, I think it was inevitable that she was going to be thrust into that role regardless. I'm not even sure that she really thinks of herself as a true spokesperson for the transgender community at this point. I think she more feels a responsibility to learn and grow and help. That's just my take. If she listens to and learns from those who have been "in the trenches" I think she has the potential to change in ways in addition to her transition(ing). I don't see how she can remain politically inclined the way she's been in the past unless she totally puts on blinders when it comes to the "many, less privileged trans community."
Posted: 8/4/15 at 3:05am
I just seem to remember other people who came along before Caitlin, such as Alexis Arquette or Chaz Bono. They both had shows that people watched.
It's just s shame that it turned out that it was a conservative republtard that ended up being 'spokesperson' for them
Posted: 8/4/15 at 4:35am
Diva, people will no doubt come along and have shows about themselves after Caitlyn, and people will watch those too. The more the merrier, and with each one, there will be more and more cis folk who will open their minds and hearts to acceptance.
haterobics, I totally agree with what you're saying.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 1:11pm
I don't think you can put "spokespeople" back in the tube, once we've squeezed them out. The spotlight, the mic, the "reality TV" glare is ready, they appear. They aren't elected, they self-determine and self-present. We can not watch, and attend small gatherings and rallies instead. But celebrity has always bred fascination, focus, attention. Jenner is schooling herself, she's behind the curve. Okay. But she's out, and as far as spokeperson school goes, on-the-job training is what we get. The ESPN speech (a rather extraordinary moment, almost buried in a congested news cycle) convinced me: she won't ruin this opportunity, even if she's not the personal choice of many.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 1:39pm
I think it would be easier for me to swallow if it wasn't done on E! in a similar format and style as the other dozen or so Kardashian shows. There isn't a sincere thing about those shows, so this feels the same to me.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 4:42pm
And yet she still showed footage of the other girls schooling her about her privilege and disagreeing with her for her thoughts on social programs. And the show didn't seem to paint Cait as right and the girls wrong.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 4:45pm
I was surprised and impressed by that.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 7:29pm
That's why I find it hard to get on the bandwagon of pissing and moaning about what she has done or hasn't done.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 8:04pm
Well, let's see if the people she has surrounded herself can change her mind to be more open to the plights of others.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 8:08pm
Why narrowcast the success of the show based on how it ultimately impacts Caitlyn, though?
There are a lot of people, who never even heard of these issues before, who are hearing about all of this stuff for the first time because they are tuning in. Seems strange to discount that element and make it all about Cait, no?
Posted: 8/4/15 at 8:20pm
Well, let's see if the people she has surrounded herself can change her mind to be more open to the plights of others.
The ESPYs speech indicates that that's a real possibility.
Posted: 8/4/15 at 9:19pm
Overall and not just talking about LBGT. The making sure people don't stay on and take advantage of welfare was sounding like typical Fox News Speak. I really don't think she comes across as a bright bulb. I like how the other woman who I can't think of her name sort of reeled her in a couple of times. I wanted to should out let the girl finish her sentence.
Not for nothing they were on the freeway when the damn window fell out of the bus and they sort of brushed over that. It had to cause some issues with cars following them. It shattered all over the road.
Curious to see how this week will play out. Will Cait have her Ah ha moment?
Updated On: 8/5/15 at 09:19 PM
Posted: 8/4/15 at 9:45pm
"The ESPYs speech indicates that that's a real possibility."
Who wrote that for her?
"Why narrowcast the success of the show based on how it ultimately impacts Caitlyn, though?"
I don't care about the success of the show, one way or the other. I'm not watching it. I'm just hoping she learns that making comments like the one she made, are unacceptable.
And if it opens other people's eye, then that's great, but I've heard far more negative things about her show and her intentions than I have heard positive things. And that's mostly from other gays and transgendered people.
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