Late to the party again ... as I was with the original Medium, a once excellent, now tired platform for written publication (and more importantly, reading / discovery) ...
Or, photographically speaking: The shutter clicks, first impressions get made but reveal, develop themselves after processing ...
Anyway:
Or, photographically speaking: The shutter clicks, first impressions get made but reveal, develop themselves after processing ...
Anyway:
It was amazing to me, as I tuned in to take in the Bruce Jenner interview, how transparent the whole thing, and particularly, Bruce, was. Not honest, mind you ... but transparent.
Bruce Jenner's a winner: One of the most celebrated athletes of all time, he is also all business. Like Sharon Osbourne, Paris Hilton ... his most recent (ex?)wife, Kardashian matriarch Kris (Jenner) ... this reads, and palpably emanates from him.
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| ate Wheaties |
No matter what's up with his hair or face, or what he decides to step out in, Bruce Jenner is not a fool. If YOU were Bruce Jenner -- accustomed to achieving, to getting things done, building empires, endorsing and, overall, WINNING -- and you were offered x amount to become the (perfect) spokesperson for an undersung, misunderstood and still maligned in 2015 minority ... a previously unrecognized third gender; by most accounts, one of the last communities vulnerable to being targeted by overt intolerance and societal hatred in our third millennium ...
You'd be foolish to lose the opportunity.
Bruce Jenner is not a loser. More than up to the task, he accepted the gig and signed on to de-victimize, in fact, humanize, the struggle ... and his own (transparent, disingenuous, some might argue, alleged) "transformation", from man to woman, began.
I was put off by this. Not by the cause: I support freedom of expression and oppose subjugation ... and not by the undertaking: Who better to speak out for subjugated societal "victims", then one of the world's most well-known victors?
No, I was put off by Diane Sawyer ... and especially, the orchestrated attempts at manipulation: the "crying", the tissues, the ponytail coming down, why, exactly on cue! The pretzel logic verging on imbecility ("Are you a lesbian?") ... The appearance appearing so TV-typical -- so tightly scripted -- that it became, in my mind, little more than a reality show episode, or an infomercial: no longer to be taken seriously ... thereby harming the cause, I thought, more than it helped.
And Bruce Jenner's appearance, to me -- in my instant assessment as I tuned in to gawk at this reality show episode -- was not one of "confusion" ... nor was it of a brave or confident "woman". Maybe I just tuned into the wrong channel, and was watching a different interview from everybody else ... Was I watching outtakes? Some footage that wasn't supposed to have aired?
For what I caught when I tuned in, was a very much in charge of things, secure with himself and with being in charge, paid spokesperson: an odd-looking guy playing up to the camera, declaratively stating that it's okay to feel, and to be, who you are.
For what I caught when I tuned in, was a very much in charge of things, secure with himself and with being in charge, paid spokesperson: an odd-looking guy playing up to the camera, declaratively stating that it's okay to feel, and to be, who you are.
And this is a good and powerful, on-point message, which should be imparted and widely absorbed ... I just think a better actor could have been hired to put it across.
