Connect with us

Arts & Entertainment

Caitlyn Jenner costume outrages transgender groups

The outfit recreates the former Olympian’s 1976 uniform

Published

on

A Caitlyn Jenner costume for sale on Amazon has sparked outrage in transgender groups who call the costume transphobic.The costume is titled “Bruce Caitlyn Jenner Olympian I Am Cait Adult Costume” and is modeled from Jenner’s winning uniform from the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Pieces from the costume include a Jersey tank featuring Jenner’s 935 number, blue shorts, a brunette wig and two plastic “Olympic” medals.

“Show your love for Caitlyn Jenner with this awesome adult costume,” reads the product’s description.

Jane Hamlin, president of transgender support group the Beaumont Society, called the item “transphobic” in a statement obtained by Yahoo News.

“I am astonished that a transphobic costume mocking Caitlyn Jenner is being marketed in the way it is. It is completely tasteless,” Hamlin said.“The transgender community has been getting quite a battering in the media recently because we would like to have autonomy over our own identities. We have become accustomed to insensitive mockery, but had hoped that cisgender people had become tired of such stunts and realized that it is not funny.No one chooses to be trans. It is the way we are born, it is who we are.”

Transgender charity Stonewall also criticized the costume and asked for it to be “taken off the shelves.”

“This is a reminder of how much is left to do to combat the abuse trans people face every day. This costume reduces a marginalized group to the butt of a joke,” a spokesperson said.

eBay did also sell the costume but after facing backlash online, the website removed it.

According to TMZ, Costume Agent, the costume’s manufacturer, refuses to pull the item. A rep said “It’s a costume. It’s funny.”

 

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Photos

PHOTOS: Walk to End HIV

Whitman-Walker holds annual event in Anacostia Park

Published

on

The 2024 Walk to End HIV is held in Anacostia Park on Saturday, Dec. 7. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Whitman-Walker Health held the 38th annual Walk and 5K to End HIV at Anacostia Park on Saturday, Dec. 7. Hundreds participated in the charity fundraiser, despite temperatures below freezing. According to organizers, nearly $450,000 was raised for HIV/AIDS treatment and research.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Continue Reading

Photos

PHOTOS: The Holiday Show

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performs at Lincoln Theatre

Published

on

The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington perform 'The Holiday Show' at Lincoln Theatre. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performed “The Holiday Show” at Lincoln Theatre on Saturday. Future performances of the show are scheduled for Dec. 14-15. For tickets and showtimes, visit gmcw.org.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Continue Reading

Books

Mother wages fight for trans daughter in new book

‘Beautiful Woman’ seethes with resentment, rattles bars of injustice

Published

on

(Book cover image courtesy of Knopf)

‘One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman’
By Abi Maxwell
c.2024, Knopf
$28/307 pages

“How many times have I told you that…?”

How many times have you heard that? Probably so often that, well, you stopped listening. From your mother, when you were very small. From your teachers in school. From your supervisor, significant other, or best friend. As in the new memoir “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman” by Abi Maxwell, it came from a daughter.

When she was pregnant, Abi Maxwell took long walks in the New Hampshire woods near her home, rubbing her belly and talking to her unborn baby. She was sure she was going to have a girl but when the sonogram technician said otherwise, that was OK. Maxwell and her husband would have a son.

But almost from birth, their child was angry, fierce, and unhappy. Just getting dressed each morning was a trial. Going outside was often impossible. Autism was a possible diagnosis but more importantly, Maxwell wasn’t listening, and she admits it with some shame.

Her child had been saying, in so many ways, that she was a girl.

Once Maxwell realized it and acted accordingly, her daughter changed almost overnight, from an angry child to a calm one – though she still, understandably, had outbursts from the bullying behavior of her peers and some adults at school. Nearly every day, Greta (her new name) said she was teased, called by her former name, and told that she was a boy.

Maxwell had fought for special education for Greta, once autism was confirmed. Now she fought for Greta’s rights at school, and sometimes within her own family. The ACLU got involved. State laws were broken. Maxwell reminded anyone who’d listen that the suicide rate for trans kids was frighteningly high. Few in her town seemed to care.

Throughout her life, Maxwell had been in many other states and lived in other cities. New Hampshire used to feel as comforting as a warm blanket but suddenly, she knew they had to get away from it. Her “town that would not protect us.”

When you hold “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman,” you’ve got more than a memoir in your hands. You’ve also got a white-hot story that seethes with anger and rightful resentment, that wails for a hurt child, and rattles the bars of injustice. And yet, it coos over love of place, but in a confused manner, as if these things don’t belong together.

Author Abi Maxwell is honest with readers, taking full responsibility for not listening to what her preschooler was saying-not-saying, and she lets you see her emotions and her worst points. In the midst of her community-wide fight, she reveals how the discrimination Greta endured affected Maxwell’s marriage and her health – all of which give a reader the sense that they’re not being sold a tall tale. Read this book, and outrage becomes familiar enough that it’s yours, too. Read “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman,” and share it. This is a book you’ll tell others about.

The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular