Caitlyn Jenner

Yes, and your opinion is wrong. Your continued insistence on asserting your own personal criteria for who is or is not transgender in contradiction of both the generally accepted terminology and the express stated wishes of actual transgender men and women is condescending and intensely disrespectful to those people. I'm just not sure at this point if you somehow continue to not understand that point, of if you've just decided that you're going to define that shit based on your own hangups or ideas and who gives a shit about how the people affected by that feel.

This really doesn't need to be complicated. If someone says "call me Caitlyn" you call them Caitlyn. If they say "I'd rather be addressed with feminine pronouns" you use "she" and "her" when addressing or referring to that person. It doesn't matter what they were born as or what their genitalia look like or what chromosomes they have or how they dress. It doesn't matter if they have had surgery or are going to have surgery or if they are or are not on hormones. It doesn't even matter if they changed their mind about it three times last week. You fucking respect their autonomy and give them the same basic respect you'd want them to give you. Caitlyn may or may not "really" be a woman depending on where you want to draw that line, but if she wants to be addressed as one then who are you to decide that you know better than she does how she should be called?

 

And this response is why you are, and always will be, one of my brothers.

 

If instead of going from Walter to Wendy she had gone from Walter to Wesley, how would you refer to her album? Probably as Wesley Carlos' first album. You might also specify that Wesley Carlos went by Walter at the time, if you want to be super clear.

The addition of a change of gender doesn't really complicate that in any way.

 

But they aren't rules. They're just accepted conventions of language and usage. They change with time and wind direction. We may like to think that our present 'politically correct' conventions are ne plus ultra, at the pinnacle of perfect and should be chiseled into granite. History of language says otherwise. Consider the history of accepted usage of nigger, darkie, negro, black, African-American, person of color, and.... What will the "rule" be 25 years from now?

It complicates it enough that the Wikipedia article on W***** Carlos seems to studiously avoid the use of the personal pronouns. It also seems to, whenever possible, sidestep the use of a first name.
That was not the case in the half-dozen other bio articles that I glanced at.

There's a successful non-celebrity gender transition here in Lincoln, Nebraska that's worth looking at.
My boyfriend Sig takes his car to her for service. Take a minute to read this. It's worth the time.
I'll let Becky (George) Witt tell the story in her own words:

Becky (George) Witt

Her auto repair shop business not only survived, it continues to flourish:

George Witt Service, Inc. Your Hometown Honda and Toyota Specialists

 

I don't know that I've ever heard anyone express the opinion that current language conventions are perfect or immutable. They're just current, that's all. They may change or they may not; if they do, whatever replaces them will be no more or less perfect. At the same time, as a white male I belong to none of the minorities in question, and as a man painfully aware of my own limitations I am not arrogant enough to think I have a right or duty to decide how other people ought to be addressed for them. So I use the language I'm asked to use. If it changes, so will I. If they haven't stated a preference I will be respectful and attempt to match normal language conventions as closely as possible. Hence Walter/Wendy/Wesley; we have social conventions for how to handle a name change already, so just apply those unless the person changing their name requests otherwise.

Life is hard enough for trans people. I'm not going to be the asshole who ruins some poor transgender woman's day by trying to dictate appropriate language to her.

 

The language we use is always evolving. Doing what I do, I see how this happens. For example, in one school, saying "that's so gay" was perfectly acceptable to the student populace. I had to put my foot down and say that it wasn't a phrase I wanted to hear. We had a conversation about why it was inappropriate. Some of the kids tried to insist it was okay to still use it because well, they didn't know any gay people. I raised my eyebrow at that. Sure, it was a small community, but I knew there were a few students who identified as LGBT but weren't out due to the community mores.

In the school I typically work at, it's wholly unacceptable to say something like that, and on the Day of Silence, we had a large group of students participating. It was really awesome.

In yet another school I know of in a larger metro area, there is a young girl dealing with gender issues, and her friend (my friend's niece) is very aware of how her own language is changing to meet her friend's new identity halfway; she wants to use the correct pronouns to support her friend, which is awesome. Teenagers have enough problems with forming their identity.

Hell, people in general have enough problems with identity.

 

Referring to the trans woman Caitlyn Jenner as Bruce/Caitlyn and he/she is maybe kind of like saying Ellen DeGeneres needs a man to have "real sex." It's maybe kind of like saying Anderson Cooper's erect penis is meant for vaginas only. It's maybe kind of like saying Lady Gaga is a slut because she's attracted to both men and women.

In other words, it's a failure to understand what an identity signifies.

Maybe it's also kind of like saying all men are latent rapists. Let's try that on for a while and see how it feels.

/toofar?

 

It's Mistress, dammit!

 

Turns out that being deliberately offensive will bother a lot of people.

 

It seems you are getting caught up in the relationship between gender and sex. There is a distinct difference between the two.

Many trans women have penises, and many trans men have vaginas. Not all of them want surgery to change their genitals, and some are even comfortable with the genitals they were born with.

That said, when a trans woman identifies as a woman, she could quite possibly be deeply insulted and hurt by being referred to as "he/she." It can be extremely difficult and taxing to live as a gender you don't identify with, and it can be frightening to come out as a gender you do identify with that's different than what you were born with.

Your insistence on using he/she for someone who identifies as she is about as sensible as my referring to you as he/she. Shall I call you Christina/Chris as well? (I have no evidence of your sex, so I want to hedge my bets.)

 

Caitlyn Jenner is a trans woman, not a partial trans woman. How you refer to her seems like a cheap shot. I prefer not to think you're doing it intentionally.

Another reference: GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Transgender Issues | GLAAD