Wherever there's a party, there's a party pooper.
And danged if one them isn't messing up the fiesta of fawning in Hollywood, the media, and liberal political circles over Catelyn Jenner's surprise appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair.
Everything was going so well! President Obama praised Jenner's "courage" in getting that Annie Leibowitz photo of her in a white satin strapless swimsuit onto that cover. Not to be outdone by her boss, Valerie Jarrett, Obama's senior advisor, tweeted, "The brave choice to live as your authentic self is a powerful example to so many." "The women's empowerment space got a brave new voice." tweeted Maria Shriver,
Demi Moore tweeted: "Thank you @Caitlyn_Jenner for sharing the gift of your beautiful authentic self inside and out!" "She's gorgeous," tweeted Mia Farrow. "BEAUTIFUL!!!," tweeted Emmy Rossum.
Oops! Because then along came Morehouse professor and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill, reprimanding the oh-so-progressive Crazy About Caitlyn set for using "cis/Eurocentric" criteria for calling someone beautiful.
Here are some of Hill's tweets:
Between the Vanity Fair spread and "she's so pretty" convos, we've smuggled in the same old cis/Eurocentric narratives about womanhood.
If we only celebrate and welcome Caitlyn Jenner bc she conforms to tradition cis/and European standards of beauty, we are making a mistake.
Trans bodies come in many shapes, sizes, & forms. We must learn to accept, love, & normalize all of them. Not just the "cover-worthy" ones.
Now, I'm a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you think that a 65-year-old former Oympic decathlete sporting a paint can's worth of makeup, a clavicle the size of a forearm, and thighs that can be charitably described as "thunder" protruding from under that swimsuit is "beautiful," be my guest.
But you've got to take the consequences. And that consequences here are that someone came along who is even more politically correct than you are. Sorry, ladies! Or, rather, sorry, cis/Eurocentric ladies!
Me, I'm still trying figure out why it's supposed to take "courage" to hoist oneself onto the cover of Vanity Fair.