What Authors (and People in General) can Learn From Caitlyn Jenner
(C) Annie Leibovitz, Vanity Fair (NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED)
On June 1st the world was formally introduced to Caitlyn Jenner. Former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner had announced a few months prior that he was, in fact, transgender and had decided to transition. Amid a storm of criticism, mockery, and so much more, he made the brave decision to finally allow himself to be her. With the help of Vanity Fair and famed photographer, Annie Leibovitz, Caitlyn was able to tell the world “Here I am.” But how can authors, and people in general, learn something from a transgender woman telling her story? Despite being publicly bashed and made fun of, Caitlyn held her beautiful head high and moved forward. I think just about anyone can relate to that. I am going to point this post more towards authors, but I hope that everyone takes something from it.
Authors become afraid to write a certain character, or tell a certain story because of how they think the world will perceive it. They’re afraid of speaking their minds because they don’t want to deal with the backlash. With this whole pirating issue, I saw one author get so passionate about her work being stolen that she made a video. In that video she said that she wished people that stole her books would understand that they are taking food out of the mouths of her children. She expressed herself. A few hours later that video disappeared. Why? Because people didn’t like her expressing herself and showing her true feelings on the matter.
Caitlyn spent years in silent agony because she felt she had to live a certain way to be accepted by society. She kept her mouth shut and wore the pants as the doormat dad on Keeping up with the Kardashians. Yet she longed to be the person she truly was inside. Now, 65 years later, she is coming into her own. Authors walk that fine line of social acceptable and true self expression. They rewrite a character because it doesn’t fit an appropriate mold. Or they get criticize because they write a character that is “too real” or “offensive”. We should all take a note from Ms. Jenner and be whatever kind of author we want to be. We should not be afraid to continue to push the boundaries in our books or on social media. If there is a topic that we’re afraid won’t be well perceived, we should talk about it any way. True bravery is accepting yourself for who you are. The same goes for accepting your writing style, or content, or whatever for what it is. You are all wonderful people and you should not be afraid of what society wants you to be.
As I say in pretty much all of my posts, I hope that this wasn’t too rambly. I have been honestly inspired by Caitlyn Jenner to accept myself for who I am and not be afraid to live how I want to live, not how I am told to live. I have decided that I am going to write how I want to write, not how people tell me to write.
