Deconstructing Caitlyn Jenner's Public Femininity

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“Look How Sexy She Is”: Deconstructing Caitlyn Jenner’s Femininity in Modern Day America
In his 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer on April 24, 2015, Bruce Jenner came out as a transgender woman, making her interview television’s “highest-ever rated newsmagazine telecast among adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.” Following her highly successful interview, Jenner’s emerging identity was revealed in a Vanity Fair cover interview by Buzz Bissinger. The magazine featured Jenner on its cover page, titled “Call Me Caitlyn” and photographed by Annie Leibovitz—the magazine’s first issue to feature an openly transgender woman. Upon its release, the image garnered immense public attention, and has been noted to mark a cultural shift in our thinking.as one …show more content…

In this paper, I have used Entwistle to establish the importance of dress in articulating social identity, as well have used her theory on the perennial nature of the sexual baggage affiliated with a female 's body to claim that Jenner 's case exemplifies how a woman has not been able to "desexualize" herself. Even at the of 65, Jenner relies severely on her aesthetic qualities to express her femininity: she must be dressed as a sensual object in order to be called a …show more content…

As Entwistle eloquently claims, " it is through our bodies that we see and come to be seen in the world." By using the phrase "come to be seen in the world," Entwistle introduces how dress serves not only as an expedient for individual expression, but also as a mediator between our internal identity and social rules. Our performance of gender is coherent with what societal conventions define as the appropriate set of characteristics of a woman. This dual purpose of dress is manifest in the manner in which Jenner dresses her body: all attempts are made to exaggerate the feminine aspects of her body. For example, her satin corset drapes alluringly around her hips, accentuating the curvature of her hips. She employs significant cosmetics to further beautify her face in order to create a sensual aura. The emphasis on her Jenner 's aesthetics is in concurrence with the importance placed on a female 's looks. The aesthetic appeal is often one of the defining characteristics of a female. And thus, Jenner 's body is dressed in the way a female 's body should be dressed. In conclusion, Jenner 's dressed body plays a salient role in Jenner 's articulation and expression of her new feminine

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