Caitlin Jenner is arguably one of the most famous trans women in recent years, and yet her own transphobic comments continue, with Jenner recently coming under fire for “using her Republican-given platform to ‘publicly degrade’ the trans community.”
This is not the first time Jenner has shared transphobic comments online. In 2021, whilst running for California Governor, she shared a meme posted by Donald Trump Jr. that placed her in comparison to Dr. Rachel Levine, entitled ‘Conservative Girls verus Liberal Girls”. Dr. Rachel Levine was the first trans person to be confirmed to a federal position by the Senate, and as Pennsylvania’s secretary of health before President Joe Biden appointed her to the post of the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services. Captioning the post, “It seems to hold true no matter what!!! Conservative girls are just better looking…”, Jenner’s repost gained immense amounts of backlash for its hateful, transphobic, misogynistic nature.
Alexandra Billings, a transgender actress who starred in five seasons of the show ‘Transparent’, commented on Jenner’s repost, accusing her of “pandering to Republicans”. Directly calling out Jenner out for her “extreme privilege”, Billing’s wrote, “You’re in a spiral of spiritual chaos and you search for admiration and public approval is just as transparent as your egocentric, pseudo-Republican, rich, white, privileged lifestyle you flaunt, pretending to be some sort of everyday citizen caring about everyday events,”.
“With your private airplane hangar full of lies and your million-dollar shoes, you have as much in common with us, as we do with you. It isn’t your Transness people are bothered by, it’s your behaviour as a human, Caitlyn. Your profound need to be liked is sadly backfiring,” posted Billings.
“You are fearful of both yourself and any kind of newness and you navigate with a well of anger in your heart that is deeply disturbing. And apparent to all of us… If there’s a small piece of you that remembers what human frailty feels like, I appeal to that. Think of others. Think of the Trans youth, who believe you to be some sort of superhuman.”
Billings went on to urge Jenner to “free” herself, stating “I cannot tell you those terrible voices will ever go away, they haven’t for me, but every day that I am able to navigate that ache of self-harm born of my own denial of my divine light, I am just a little bit freer… Free yourself, Caitlyn. By doing that, you may set the greatest example of your life.”
Unfortunately, after Jenner’s recent comments regarding Dylan Mulvaney, it seems Billings comments didn’t affect Caitlyn’s beliefs when it came to the trans community.
Dylan Mulvaney is an actress and transgender rights activist, widely known for creating her Tiktok series ‘Days of Girlhood’ which followed her daily life as she navigated her gender transition.
Last month, Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted an old video of Dyland Mulvaney discussing body types, and how she hopes that revealing her struggles with wearing tight clothes will inspire others to “normalise the bulge”.
“We are normalising the bulge. Women can have bulges, and that’s okay. We’re not gonna stare a their crotches.”
Blackburn, however, took to social media to call Mulvaney’s opinions “absurdity”, a statement which was then approved by Jenner, who took to her own Twitter to quote tweet, “Let’s not ‘normalise’ any of what this person is doing”. And, though she faced widespread backlash from this comment alone, Jenner then continued to misgender Mulvaney as well as further reiterate her disapproval of Mulvaney and her Tiktok’s. “There is a difference between acceptance and tolerance, and normalising exposing your genitals in a public way and a public place” stated Jenner. “I do not support that at all, in the slightest. Dylan… congrats your trans with a penis.”
Caitlyn Jenner’s disgustingly transphobic comments were, of course, met with further backlash, however Mulvaney’s graceful response was encouraging against the backdrop of the hatred that Jenner had whipped up. Jenner’s tweets had sent her supports to ‘publically ridicule’ Mulvaney, who urged Jenne to ‘think back to her early days of transitioning and try to think about the people she’s hurting with her cruel comments’. Furthermore, Mulvaney added that the video in question was one from her early time of transitioning, and she admits “I didn’t fully know how to tuck that early on. I was still wearing men’s Calvin Kelin underwear”, going on to explain that Jenner’s comments were particularly hurtful with it being common knowledge in the transgender community that ‘getting bottom surgery is an expensive and arduous procedure – and often prices out poor or trans people of colour’.
“You’ve been accepted by a group of people that very clearly does not accept me, and nearly every day this week, I have been called a freak, a child predator, an absurdity… I am none of those things that your cohort are painting me to be, and my question for you is: don’t you feel a little lonely over there? These people that you’re standing with, I don’t know if they have your best intentions at heat. But they will use you to make and the trans community’s life a lot harder than it already is.”
Mulvaney encapsulated the sheer disappointment that hundreds now have towards Jenner when she stated, “this is not Woman of the Year behaviour”. It is so upsetting to see such vile comments being spouted from the mouth of one of the most recognisable trans women in modern America, and the hatred it may have inspired nationwide is terrifying to think about.
When asked for comment by the Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Caitlyn Jenner’s team said the tweet misgendering Mulvaney was no written by Jenner but by a staff member.
“An individual on Ms. Jenner’s team haphazardly misgendered Dylan, in the tweet ‘he is talking about his penis’. For this we deeply regret the comment and have taken appropriate actions to rectify the situation, internally. Ms. Jenner has no further comment on the matter and stands by statements, otherwise.”
Mulvaney has, understandably, made it clear that ‘she no longer respects or cares to hear from Jenner’, and aims to keep on ‘licing her life and is focused on using her platform for good, stating “I didn’t start ‘Days of Girlhood’ because being a woman sounded fun. I started this series because of the unspoken shame of being newly trans. I am moving on, onward and upward, and I hope you do too”.
Sources