I’m not a regular reader of Woman’s Day or New Idea, but this week both magazine’s caught my eye.
On their cover both magazine’s had the same story, rumours that Bruce Jenner, the father in the ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ reality TV show is possibly undergoing a gender reassignment procedure.
I’ve only ever seen one episode of the show about people who are famous for apparently nothing, so I’m not overly familiar with the show.
I did know trivially that Bruce Jenner, the second husband of matriarch Kris, mother of Kim, Khloe and Rob, was once in the Village People movie ‘You Can’t Stop the Music’. I remember this because its one of the first movie’s I saw at the Drive-In and I have a strange fascination of wondering whatever happened to Steve Guttenberg – it’s one of those thoughts that comes to me late at night when I can’t sleep. The Police Academy movies – they were huge.
How I know of the Kardashian’s is just general knowledge transfered by osmosis through living in the modern world.
On the cover of Woman’s Day the headline read “Kardashian Sex-Change Shock – Bruce Needs a Bra!” while New Idea went with “Kardashian Dad – Sex Change Surgery – Shock Pics Inside”. “Why does it have to be a shock?” I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if all parts of the media could report the experience of gender change without sensationalising it.
I read the articles within. New Idea had exclusive images of Jenner reportedly leaving a plastic surgeon’s clinic where he had allegedly had surgery to remove his Adam’s Apple. It was suggested that Jenner had started hormone therapy and it was highlighted that he liked wearing make-up, is fond of wearing women’s clothes and has recently grown his hair longer. They included pictures of him from the 1976 Olympics noting that he was named the ‘World’s Greatest Athlete’.
Woman’s Day’s take on the story was even more sensationalist. Titled ‘Brice Jenner Goes from a He to a She!’ the photos accompany the story had taglines like ‘From Hunk to Honey’ and a call out to head to the magazine’s Facebook page to guess what Jenner’s female name would be.
A side panel racked up the evidence that Jenner may be transgender: A photo showed him with potential ‘man boobs’, He wore earrings, he liked manicures, he knew how to cook and often wore an apron in the kitchen and for parties was known to play dress ups.
In the article it has lines like, “..one step closer to realising his greatest dream – to become a woman!”, “he next plans to surgically remove his penis!”, “he’s obsessed with plucking his eyebrows!”, “Bruce is more emotional than all the Kardashian girls combined!”, “Kris says Bruce is more of a woman than she is!”
What a pity that these publications have chosen to treat a person’s gender journey in such a trivial and sensationalist manner. Here’s a hint to the editors of ‘New Idea’ and ‘Woman’s Day’; there are at least 12 unnecessary explanation points used in sharing this story that make the approach alarmist and sensational. Yes, twelve!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a disappointment that neither of these publications had the forethought to look at easily available resources like the GLAAD Guidelines for Journalists on how to report on transgender people. There was an opportunity to be educational and informative.
So ‘Woman’s Day’ and ‘New Idea’ are shocked about Bruce Jenner, I’m shocked that someone can use so many explanation marks and trivialise an important issue.
Graeme Watson
This is post is an opinion piece, the views are those of the of the author.
