The new Caitlyn Jenner

Parent Cafe
181

"Sigh. I guess I’d just like to lock Jenner in a room with Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Sally Field and Susan Sarandon so they can teach her how a woman in her sixties can be glamorous and gorgeous without looking like she’s **** "

Did you note the 2012 Vanity Fair issue of Susan Sarandon posing in a similar way? If you google, you’ll see that another shot from that session has SS wearing a top but no pants and looking very coy and come-hither. Oops! Well, that’s different, I suppose.

Look at the picture of Caitlyn in the red dress and sunglasses sitting in a sports car. That’s a very iconic, understated look as well, channeling all kinds of Hollywood glamour. If it were Amal Clooney in that photo, we would be falling all over her to announce how classic it was. It’s not even remotely Kardashian flashy style.

I think it’s kind of sadder that some of you think a woman over a certain age can’t show sex appeal. Maybe you should read MORE magazine, which features lots of fifty and sixty something women looking great.

182

I have been skimming this thread and also following the one about the Duggars.

I find it fascinating that many here who most loudly criticized the Duggars and made assumptions and generalizations about them above and beyond what has actually been disclosed as fact have a very different attitude on THIS thread. They seem to be eager to jump on any who are critical in any way of Jenner’s transition.

vs

I do not have a problem with what Jenner has done. I do, however, have a problem with folks deciding what is right and wrong for others…not talking here about any actual molestation that may have occurred (in the Duggar situation), but about that family’s way of life, which has been completely trashed on the other thread. “Live and let live”???

I guess what has me most disturbed is the idea that the Duggar’s faith and values and the way they live their life RESULTED in abuse. I do not believe that to be the case. Nor do I believe that Jenner’s decision to transition and to make this such a public issue is going to be harmful to anyone else…

183

^ Totally agree with pg. What’s wrong with a 60 something woman wanting to look good?

Who says Caitlyn or any other woman who wants to look attractive is insecure? I’m 58 and wear makeup, got my eyes done, color my hair and wear stylish clothing because I want to. Maybe Caitlyn wants to.

Why the judging?

184

That MAY have occurred? Is there any doubt that the sexual abuse of at least 5 children over several years did occur? What people and families choose to do with their lives is their own business EXCEPT when it is illegal and brings harm to others. Especially young children. The lies and secrecy perpetuated by the Duggars are horrific. The lies and secrecy perpetuated by Caitlyn when she was living Bruce are sad. Big difference.

185

"Who says Caitlyn or any other woman who wants to look attractive is insecure? I’m 58 and wear makeup, got my eyes done, color my hair and wear stylish clothing because I want to. "

Bingo. That’s a very revealing leap - keeping oneself up has to be about insecurity.

186

I don’t participate in Duggars threads. I’ve never had any objection to their having 19 kids - whatever, not my business. I did/do object to standing in the way of equal rights for gays, which they made a big show of doing.

187

I was responding to this.

188

@FallGirl
@Pizzagirl

Agree! Are we supposed to “give up” just bc we are old? I know that my mom’s generation often did abandon style as they aged, but they still had Namcy Reagan and Audrey Hepburn and others.

Wake up call ladies, you CHOOSE to give up! For some women these things have never been important. But even then you see clean faced, grey haired women who have their own style!!

God help me if I turn into a blue haired lady in a big flowered dress! Hopefully I’ll be blond when they put me in the ground in a gorgeous LBD and my favorite heels!!

189

This thread is so interesting and one of the most revealing ever on cc.

190

Churchmusicmom, for me, the Duggar situation is almost painful. I have been disillusioned so many times by church pastors who I looked up to, who seemed for real, who ended up not having “feet of clay”, but turning out not to be at all what they portrayed themselves to be, while telling others to “be Godly and do the right thing”. I really believed the Duggar’s were for real, and I was bitterly disillusioned to find out that the grace that was portrayed on TV was all for show. It breaks my heart that they would choose to televise their life starting almost the same moment these things were going on in their home, making their daughters smile the whole time.

As far as Caitlyn Jenner, I don’t even understand how it is the same thing? In what way is this a religious issue? She is living her life in the way she feels is right for herself, as a person who is free to make her own choices.

191

Beautiful cover. I applaud all the sexy “older” women. Colette, for example. And we have advertising campaigns featuring Didion and Mitchell.

Doris Lessing, in A Summer Before the Dark explores the idea of the invisible older woman. This book was very useful for me, as a much younger woman, in understanding how some older women move beyond the idea of presenting an attractive face, and sexually appealing body, to the world. They don’t give up. It just no longer holds any interest to them. They have other things on their minds. imho. ymmv.

For us baby boomers, there isn’t any correct way to age. If it makes you happy… :slight_smile:
It’s just clothes, but again, clothes are perhaps a metaphor for almost everything.

Increasingly, I find invisibility extremely appealing and a relief. However, to be completely invisible, I’ll have to wear uninteresting clothes, which I haven’t quite reconciled myself to yet. Young women tell me, “I want to be you when I’m old” At least they recognize I’m old. :slight_smile:

192

“Needing to look as attractive as possible and being insecure about it is the curse of young women”

This is sooooo revealing because it projected that Caitlyn’s makeup/hair/styling/presentation must have been driven by insecurity as opposed to the pleasure of knowing you look good.

It’s kind of pathetic to think that looking good is only the province of twenty somethings. Well, that’s how you get cat sweatshirts at PTA meetings, I suppose.

193

Personally, I would have preferred the black dress shot on the cover. But thats just me.

194

We already did that sweatshirt thread. Please don’t make me think about cat sweatshirts, again. :slight_smile:
Looking good is in the eye of the beholder. This last few pages clearly illustrates that.

Some women dress and make-up for themselves; public reaction is really irrelevant. If I’m the last woman on earth, I’m putting on a pretty dress when I wake up. Unless I decide being completely invisible is worth giving up my dresses.

ETA: of course, if I’m the last person on earth – I can wear my dresses without any concern about how they are interpreted. Still, I don’t want to be the very last one.

195

What I just find amusing is that it’s supposedly a “hooker” look. Uh, no. It’s a completely different aesthetic from the Kardashian look.

196

Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show”: “Caitlyn, when you were a man, we could talk about your athleticism, your business acumen,” Stewart said. “But now you’re a woman, which means your looks are really the only thing we care about.”

197

well, we could deconstruct “hooker” look for days.

eta; since I don’t have tv, it has been impossible for me to keep up with the Kardashians, so I really have no opinion on their style choices.

198

Lots of skin-tight, revealing clothes. And not cut to flatter the bodies that they have.

199

How’s this one, alh? http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article4799098.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Kim-Kardashian-at-the-GQ-Men-of-the-Year-awards.jpg

200

I gasped when the link showed up on the side of my email- beautiful. I don’t need to judge whether she’s X age, so should dress as my great aunts did, at her age. (I don’t.) We’re older. Period, the End. The heck with old stereotypes!

C’mon, some of you. I’m surprised that, in your own minds, you’re only now considering the transgender issue, the reality. I was a spud when I learned of Christine Jorgensen- and it made enough sense.

Maybe it jars some of you to learn not everyone fits the external mold you “see” in others. But gender assignment at birth is imperfect. The doc holds up the baby and proclaims based on external sex organs. And after that, some think people are “supposed to” stay within those lines. But, we’ve had decades (really, centuries,) to process that not everyone feels what their initial label is. The medical and psychological worlds support that, have studied it and aimed for understanding. We can, too.

As for the choice of which photos, so what? This is the media. VF aims for both style and attracting our interest. I believe Jenner had some input, but the actual choice of which pics were released was left to the marketing team (and it worked, no?)

Bruce Jenner did publicly present as male, all those years. Now we have Caitlyn. Let her be. Give her the same freedoms you want for yourselves. I looked at the pics, saw a woman, said to myself, damn, with a little effort, I could look that good, too. So be it.

Btw, thanks, Donna, for trying to open eyes.