Bruce Jenner, Family, Gender and Stress/Just Another Sunday Part 2

Bruce Jenner and my family, part two.

Given that this blog tries to focus on aspects of queer health, I decided to talk about this social and personal episode for two reasons. 1. My understanding of gender and gendered health comes a lot from personal experiences. 2. This episode really captured the stress, anxiety and other mental health problems that exist within queer communities.

Watching the clips of Bruce talking to Diane, it was clear he had to go through many emotionally taxing episodes in his life. As he stated, he was seen as the "manly American man" for most of his life, but simultaneously he didn't feel comfortable being seen and identifying as a man. That inner conflict, exacerbated by external pressures, is very common for gender minorities. With this conflict comes the added mental health issues. Anxiety, depression and suicide. Bruce is an interesting example, because he has access to a great deal of financial and social capital. That's usually not true for many gender minorities. Trans folks are a demographic that live in deep, deep poverty. Add the mental health issues coming from stigma with the mental health issues of living in poverty, and you have a group of people in dire need of help.

Bruce being able to live his truth is great, but of course, his story and experience is just a jumping off point for a bigger conversation.

I'll be making references to two artists in particular, for future conversations. Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian, who were integral in my understanding of queerness, transness, and brown-ness.