Bruce Jenner, Family, Gender and Stress/Just Another Sunday Part 1

*Note: I will be using "he/his" gender pronouns for Bruce, as these are the pronouns Jenner asked Diane Sawyer to use. Gender is not a final point or a rigid characteristic, it is as much a journey as it is an identity, so I am choosing to respect Bruce's journey and his understanding of himself.

That said, as some may have heard, Dianne Sawyer recently interviewed Bruce Jenner. I admit, I haven't had time to watch the interview, but I did watch some tid bits and I watched the clip in which Bruce discusses being a woman and having the soul of a woman. Excellent!

                                 Photograph by J. B Lacroix/Getty Photography

                                              Taken from The New Yorker

I talk a lot about gender, a little bit to my family, a lot to my friends, and a lot, lot, LOT more to myself. Understanding gender and it's social workings, both as a social system as well as a self-empowering form of identification has been integral in shaping my perspective, giving me strength, and understanding how to navigate the ever so messy and sticky thing called life. Given that, it's incredibly stressful discussing this topic with people who either don't a) know what the hell I'm rambling about or b) think I'm making stuff up. Both of these scenarios apply to my family. Add in the emotional and physical closeness with my family, and you've got 40 minutes of anxiety and internal conflict.


Bruce came up in a conversation this weekend and my parents insisted that Bruce was just "confused" about his gender and that he was living in a fantasy world in which he was perpetually lying to himself. The conversation turned to me and I was asked if I was male or female and I responded that my gender is Saad, because that is what feels the most authentic at this time (discussed in the last post). My parents didn't like that answer, they said they only dabble in FACTS and that all of this talk was too dubious. Ha! I retorted that all of human existence is dubious! That's a hallmark of human society and civilization. We just do the best we can with the very limited understanding we have of the world and ourselves. Gender and our understanding of gender, as part of human history and world, is continually shifting and changing. We are currently living in an exciting pocket of time where a Transwoman (albiet, a very wealth and racially privileged Transwoman), who was the epitome of American masculinity can share his story of being a woman. That is incredible.