Cynics might say that his television plans are more about self-promotion than leadership. All I know is that Jenner seems to be preparing for a bold public mission involving something intensely personal, in a way that should open minds and hearts.Count me among the cynics. Jenner is deeply embedded in the immense and profitable business of making reality shows. You know, the show title "Keeping Up the Kardashians" is absolutely perfect. People actually do have trouble keeping up! The Kardashians are way out in front. I think the best strategy is to take a different route and not tag after them huffing and puffing. You look like a fool!
Here's a good interview with Kris Kardashian Jenner (on Alec Baldwin's podcast "Here's the Thing"). Listen to this and I think you will respect the enterprise of making a big hit reality show.
And by "respect" I do not mean want to watch. I mean: understand that this is a decathlon-level competition and you cannot keep up. I cannot keep up with whether Bruce Jenner is transgender, and I will not be roped into the publicity for a new reality show.
Posts
45 comments:
I'm skeptical, too.
Keeping Up With Bruce's Gender
In the lore of the Leatherstocking Tales, the mentally retarded were considered sacred by the Indians and objects of honor. For us, the 'transgendered' take that role, apparently.
I can't think of any circumstances where I'd be willing to have a penis removal in order to advance/prolong my career as a reality TV star. that takes commitment. Or shows a need to be committed.
The general question of who transgendered people are and how our culture should relate and respond to them is distinctly different, in my book, from the promotion of Bruce Jenner's story, which has to do with making big money on a TV reality show.
I'd like this comments thread to focus on what is currently swirling around Jenner and how we should respond to that, not more generally about transgender issues, which have been discussed in previous threads.
"I can't think of any circumstances where I'd be willing to have a penis removal in order to advance/prolong my career as a reality TV star. that takes commitment."
I'll bet there will be plenty of drama over that topic, but will he actually do it? Should we care? This is how they rope you in.
I think we should respond however we want to respond.
There is no requirement to care, to act, to respond, to know about it. It is 100% an individual choice how to respond to this story.
We need as a society to completely ignore that entire brood--besides Jenner, who is a long-retired athlete, the others are completely worthless and beneath anything deserving of our intention. I'm not helping matters by commenting here, of course--but if we can just collectively look away maybe they'll crawl back to wherever they emerged from.
And I can't believe that I would ever say this about Kayne "Please Look at Me" West--he actually married someone far beneath him.
Does a post on the topic respecting it or providing publicity ?
Oh, and there we were all in one place
A Jenneration lost in space...
In 1980 Bruce Jenner starred withe The Village People in "Can't Stop the Music." Then the Kardashians. Now this. Dots can be connected.
As for the 'swirl' around Jenner: to be viewed is to be accepted. Some will watch to scoff, of course, but many more will embrace him because Kim Kardashian does.
For a significant part of America what happens to the Kardashians IS news.
Nero would've played the Kardashians like a fiddle.
I am Laslo.
I do like the lipstick colors the Kardashian/Jenner girls wear. That I will pay attention to.
Ironically, the ratings for their reality show are down substantially. People who care have "kept up" via twitter and other social media. The lead time for editing the reality show makes it "old news."
If I didn't have so many women in my life, I would likely only be dimly aware of the Kardashian's existence, except weren't "Kardashians" an alien race on Star Trek, the Next Generation?
I know there must be a million ways to rope in large female audiences, and not one of them has to do with anything in which I am remotely interested.
celebritneys.
History is chock full of them.
240 channels and nothing on (except Love it or List it on HGTV)
My sisters, aunts, and grandmothers were expert at cooking and sewing, my daughters, nieces, and their generation watch TV about cooking and sewing.
Not to say I don't respect both skills.
"I'd like this comments thread to focus on what is currently swirling around Jenner and how we should respond to that, not more generally about transgender issues, which have been discussed in previous threads."
There's nothing "swirling around Jennner" without the public parading of his mental illness. Your wish for this comments thread denies the reality of the topic you've raised.
Who is Kim Kardashian Jenner?
Do you mean Kris?
Victoria Beckham was thought to be a thoroughly horrible person who deserved nothing but scorn and ridicule.
She had a reality show. Once. Very briefly. The problem? It showed her (and to an extent her husband David Beckham) to be relatively down-to-earth successful people who treated people pretty decently.
The biggest problem with the show was that it was too boring. Imagine that. The Beckhams = boring.
I wish Jenner nothing but happiness in his new life. I however, will not be watching any of the show.
Say what you will, but BJ is real good at drawing attention to himself.
Why the hell should I give a $h!t about Bruce Jenner deciding to shoot himself up full of hormones and turn himself into a freak?
Why do we keep pretending that the "transexuals" are anything but mentally ill people we shouldn't be humoring.
Doctors offering the surgery to "correct" their issue should lose their license.
"I can't think of any circumstances where I'd be willing to have a penis removal in order to advance/prolong my career as a reality TV star. that takes commitment. Or shows a need to be committed."
That reminds me about using a bacon and egg breakfast to highlight the difference between involvement and committment. The hen is involved, but the pig is committed.
I'm sure Kim Kardashian can give Bruce Jenner lessons on blow-job technique. I picture the show with digitally blurred bananas in the Kardashian kitchen.
I am Laslo.
This current stage of Jenner is really a shame. Fortunately I know little of it, refuse to follow it and will always think of Bruce Jenner as a tremendous athlete, nothing more.
Kim Kardashian will give Bruce Jenner advice on how to accept anal sex. So that it can be televised without bleeps she will refer to it as 'visiting the Boom Boom Room.'
I am Laslo.
I believe he will back out at the last moment, after the reality special has aired and the storyline has been absorbed into the other Kardashian shows. Him backing out will be another storyline.
I am that cynical.
"There is no requirement to care, to act, to respond, to know about it. It is 100% an individual choice how to respond to this story."
I agree, which is why I was steadfastly refusing to blog this topic. The reason I felt I needed to blog it this morning was because it was getting attention from people like Kristof who should have better bullshit detectors. Thus, my post isn't really about Jenner. It's about people who are drawn in by PR.
"I believe he will back out at the last moment, after the reality special has aired and the storyline has been absorbed into the other Kardashian shows. Him backing out will be another storyline."
That's my prediction too. We (if we watch) will go with him on his elaborate episode by episode journey, and in the end he will realize he's happy with his manhood. Surprise!
My sisters, aunts, and grandmothers were expert at cooking and sewing, my daughters, nieces, and their generation watch TV about cooking and sewing.
Ha!
I could see it being real issue, but brought on by the fact that the women in his family get all the attention and he has decided that it's his turn.
The reason I felt I needed to blog it this morning was because it was getting attention from people like Kristof who should have better bullshit detectors.
Hasn't Kristof proven that he has no BS detector at all? He's been taken in by a good (untrue) story a few too many times.
I don't know who Bruce Jenner is.
I'm not completely out of it though. Hugh Grant is a good sign in romantic comedies, if you're buying them blind.
How to respond to what is swirling around Bruce Jenner?
Well, there are only a few approaches --
(1) He is a male, he has always been male and he will always be male.
(2) He is ? He was in the past male, but will in the future be female.
(3) He is female and always was female.
(4) He is simply in a severe mental crisis (like Michael Jackson was) and we do him no favors by catering to his delusions.
Number 3 is the current PC. Number 2 suggests it is a matter of choice, which is a forbidden thought. And Number 1 is just haters hating.
But if it is Number 3, then we have a huge problem because the decathalon is an event for men and men only. If Bruce Jenner was actually female at the time, then he is disqualified and he needs to give back his gold medal.
If he wants to keep the medal, then we gotta go with 2 or 1 and 4.
"...I'm not fooled by Tweeter's curls, I knew him long before he became a Jersey girl..."
"I believe he will back out at the last moment, after the reality special has aired and the storyline has been absorbed into the other Kardashian shows. Him backing out will be another storyline."
That's my prediction too. We (if we watch) will go with him on his elaborate episode by episode journey, and in the end he will realize he's happy with his manhood. Surprise!
This is why I stopped watching television.
I still don't know what a "kardashian" is. But apparently they have caused Bruce Jenner to become gay.
Count me amongst the skeptical. It is getting harder and harder to up the ante on these reality shows to suck people in. How much longer before they implode? Are their porn reality shows already?
I understand now why people like Duck Dynasty so much. Amongst all this trashy drama, they at least have a semblance of normalcy about them. They're the Andy Griffith of reality shows.
As an Olympian he WAS great at the pole vault.
I am Laslo.
If a pushing 70 year old, thrice divorced, father of four adult children decides he's really a woman, ok by me, don't care one way or another. My interest in this topic is rivaled by my interest in the Kardashian shows. Couldn't give a crap. Won't watch either.
Thanks for that interview link, by the way. It was excellent
"Who is Kim Kardashian Jenner? Do you mean Kris?"
Sorry. That was sloppy. Fixed.
Post a Comment