Caitlyn Jenner: Woman of the Year?

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Brittany Lee, Staff Writer

Last week Caitlyn Jenner was honored with Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year award, but is she really deserving of it?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself after learning yesterday that James Smith, the husband of a cop killed on 9/11, returned his wife’s Woman of the Year award to Glamour when learning that Jenner had been bestowed the same award.

Smith’s wife died at the age of 38 after rushing into the south tower, and was honored by the magazine a month after her death.

But after Jenner was anointed last week, Smith wrote a letter to the magazine’s editor…  “I was shocked and saddened to learn that Glamour has just named Bruce Jenner ‘Woman of the Year’… Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving than this man?” Smith wrote. “At a time when we have women in the armed forces fighting and dying for our country, heroic doctors fighting deadly diseases, women police and firefighters putting their lives on the line for total strangers, brave women overcoming life threatening diseases . . . the list of possibilities goes on . . . is this the best you could do?”

I don’t entirely agree with his statement; it was especially wrong of him to misgender Caitlyn and refer to her as a man. However, I do not think she was the best fit for this award.

Caitlyn Jenner made her transition less than 6 months ago, and in my opinion, cannot possibly understand what it means to be a woman in that amount of time.

I read a Buzzfeed article earlier this week where they interviewed various celebrity women involved in Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year award ceremony. They asked them, along with Jenner, what is the hardest part about being a woman?

First they asked Elisabeth Moss who stated, “I would say the hardest is being strong and being tough and asking for what you want and what you need while not being sort of labeled as a bitch, which is tough to do.”

They then asked Viola Davis, who was also a presenter at the ceremony, what the hardest part about being a woman is to her, “The hardest part about being a woman is being underestimated. I would think that that’s the hardest.” Said Davis.

Finally they made their way to Jenner, and her response was simply ridiculous, “The hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear. It’s always that way; I never thought it would come to this. I had really no sense of style. Everyone around me in my family had the sense of style — I learned as much as I possibly could.”

If Caitlyn Jenner truly believes that the hardest part about being a women is deciding what to wear, she has a lot to learn. Out of all the things women have to deal with in today’s society, I honestly feel that the last thing we have to worry about is something so menial as choosing the right dress to wear.

She also created controversy earlier this year after she received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS. However, I did feel that she was somewhat deserving of that, because it takes a hell of a lot of bravery come out as a woman after being known worldwide as the greatest male athlete of all time.

But woman of the year? I think Jenner has a lot to learn about being a woman before she can truly be fitting of that title.