Caitlyn Jenner

Yesterday, Caitlyn Jenner gave a very emotional speech at the ESPY Awards. You can watch it here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LZt7hDR6YYU 

I feel absolutely compelled to talk about my feelings about this subject. For a long time I have felt very upset that our society puts so much pressure on everyone to fit in a box of one kind or another. You must check the box on most job applications and any time you fill out a survey for a company or product… Are you white, black, other…do you identify as male, female, LGBT…WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING BOX???!!!!!

Before I get too much into the Jenner thing, I feel I need to preface it with my thoughts from when they passed the same sex marriage law and opened up a new world for people who love each other to be able to live freely within a monogamous relationship protected by law, I got so angry when I found out folks were “deleting folks from their “friends” lists for supporting same sex marriage… prejudice is so much bigger than black/white…gay/straight…fat/skinny…tall/short…male/female…the list goes on and on…it is a shame that people look for the difference instead of the similarities…open your mind…‪#‎WEAREALLHUMAN‬! and if you gotta know my labels….I’m a tall, fat, straight, white, girl that can swing a bat, and an ax and cook up a mess and hold my own in a garage…go ahead and delete me…I support HUMANITY!” (quote taken directly from my Facebook page from a post from Dani Day June 28 at 6:49am)

That post brought in many comments and private messages including one person who basically attacked me for NOT DELETING folks who disagreed with my point of view! My response to that is below…taken from the thread referenced above…

“I just recieved a very interesting message (based on this post) so I am putting this out there for anyone wanting to know my views…I am a very outspoken person and will speak my mind when i feel the urg…but just like I speak out about folks deleting folks for supporting, I will not delet folks for not supporting. If anyone attacks me personally, I will stand up…If anyone attacks someone I care about, I will stand up…if anyone attacks someone I don’t know and I hear about it or witness it…I will stand up! but I believe equality is ALL encompassing and I believe everyone has a right to what they think and feel and believe. Therefore…I will not delete you for not thinking what I think…I will not delete you for not jumping on my bandwagon…I even read oposing comments and statements here and elsewhere so that I can be informed of the other views to round out my own perceptions of the world. I don’t run away from conflict…I embrace it and look for ways to bridge the gap…not make it bigger…I don’t care if you are on one side or the other…I am ME and I think what I think and I want ALL people to be respected for being HUMAN…my crayon box has many colors and some are even broken, but my crayons all make beautiful pictures…with LOVE and HUMANITY in mind…”

With all that said…when I first heard that Bruce Jenner was going to step into the world as a woman, I was angry…not that “he” was hiding his true feelings or that it put any question about “his” masculinity or sexuality or whether that meant he was any less of a person or any of the other ridiculous reasons I have heard people disrespecting the choice he made…

I was angry because I felt like it is such a shame that this society has put so much pressure on us to fit in a box that we have to choose to undergo extreme body reconstruction and hormone treatments to fit in a box that we were not born to be in! I am not saying there is anything wrong with a male identifying as female or vise/versa…I was born with boobs and a vagina but I feel more like a “man” by societal norms than a “woman” at times because I am 6’3″ and am very capable of taking care of myself and can handle power tools as well as any “man”…yet I was lucky enough to have a mom and grandparents that taught me that I could do or be anything I wanted and it was never an issue of sex.

Sometimes I feel like the reason so many Transgendered people kill themselves and do things to basically mutilate themselves is because this society tells them they HAVE to conform to a box of this societies choosing and if they don’t fit, they will cut parts off…add parts on…augment, suck out or do anything they can to fit…if they don’t want to cut up their bodies, they tend to just end the suffering…WTF???!!! And this isn’t just a Transgendered issue!!!! Women and Men who do not change their sex physically mutilate themselves to fit in the box labeled “beauty” that this society has placed in every store window and iPhone!!!

I commend Caitlyn for sticking up for all the Trans folks out there and saying that its ok to be who you are…but I still disagree that you should have to chop off your adams apple or do anything else to surgically/hormonally change your body you were born with…the reason Bruce felt like a woman trapped in a man’s body is because society wouldn’t allow “him” to wear a dress in public or play with nail polish or have long hair or what ever other societal stigmas disallowed the person inside to be fully the person inside…

Maybe it’s easier for me…I’m a woman and for whatever reason, we are more accepted when we wear jeans and short hair than when a man wears long hair and a dress…but that again is the FUCKED UP way society has made the rules for identity boxes…I wear my hair short sometime…sometimes it’s long…sometimes I wear pants…sometimes I wear a dress…but most of the time, I just wear what’s comfortable…I don’t wear makeup very often and when I do it’s because society says I’m “supposed” to when I go out or to a job interview…that sucks!!!

I have worn many labels in my life and I have been forced to pick some for folks to understand me better through their filters but I am taking a stand now that I will do my best not to wear anymore labels!!! I will avoid being placed in BOXES…I have boobs and a vagina! I don’t shave my legs or under arms…cuz it’s there for a reason…I like to paint my nails sometimes because I like pretty colors…I like to play rough but will cry if I get hurt… I love men…I love women…I love people…I identify and get along more with most men than I do with most women…but I have had wonderful relationships with both…I’m not going to put a label on what that is other than it is ME and I am OK being ME!

Bravo Caitlyn for doing your thing…I wish I could have met you as Bruce but love you as Caitlyn too! I’m sorry you have had to endure so much pain physically and emotionally to find yourself and claim your identity…I hope that we as a society can get to a point where people don’t have to go to the extremes that you did to get the world to hear you and accept you…

One day, I hope that all people can be accepted no matter what their race, religion, sex, color, height, weight, job, income, cup size (boobs or balls) or any other potential boxed identity may be…