The personal story of Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner is so well known in today's culture that she needs no introduction. Since first declaring her desire to live her authentic life in an interview with Diane Sawyer, and the following Vanity Fair cover introducing her name to the world, this book is an inevitability. While I support her choices fully, I thought this book was premature, too myopic, and pretty badly written.
The real secret for me was that far from being something that developed recently, even as a child Bruce always had a desire to be feminine. Throughout his life he had revealed to his three wives to various degrees that he enjoyed dressing as a woman and they were bewildered but supportive, and above all secretive. When he worked on speaking tours after winning at the Olympics, the bonus was the chance to dress up and walk in public away from home. By the time he was turning 40, he had made up his mind to transition, including growing breasts through hormone therapy, but it would be another 25 years before he had the courage. Overnight, Caitlyn became the unofficial spokesperson for the transgendered community, for better or worse.
While I support and applaud her becoming who she wants to be, it's a mixed approval from me. Whether Caitlyn or Bruce, she is still a white conservative Republican with many views and ideas I disagree with. The writing is filled with a privileged viewpoint, the very American way of being proudly uneducated about the world. Suddenly a spokesperson for the trans community without the background of what that entails. Other reviews might mention the reality TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but I won't as I have never seen a single episode.
This was released unto the shelves of Costco while the story was hot, but although her lifetime of gender dysmorphia is completely valid, Caitlyn's story is too new. In a few years, look back and share the knowledge you have learned, and invite us to meet the woman you have really become. This book feels too early, it's too fresh.
2017 / Hardcover / 320 pages
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