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22 | June 7, 2017 | Malibu surfside news life & arts
malibusurfsidenews.com
‘This is about my personal journey’
Malibu’s Caitlyn Jenner
sits down with the
Malibu Surfside News
following book release
Barbara Burke
Freelance Reporter
“Biology loves variation. Biology
loves differences. Society
hates it.”
That intriguing quote by human
sexuality expert Milton
Diamond begins longtime Malibuite
Caitlyn Jenner’s recently
released book, “The Secrets of
My Life.”
The book is a captivating rendition
of a harrowing six-decade
odyssey involving fame and fortune
watched by millions — and
isolation, confusion, and angst
known to none other than Jenner.
“The Secrets of My Life” recounts
Jenner being idolized at
times and demeaned at others,
having high emotions at some
points and being so numbed that
there were no emotions at other
points. The reader becomes intimately
and, often, somewhat
uncomfortably familiar with
Jenner having paralyzing selfdoubts,
confusing self-exploration,
and ultimately, liberating
self-expression as Jenner underwent
gender reassignment,
enabling a transition to the person
whom she always knew she
was.
“Think about how it would feel if you
know you’re left handed, but always
have your left hand tied behind your
back and are forced to write with your
right hand.”
Caitlyn Jenner — Malibu resident and celebrity, on gender
dysphoria
From birth to rebirth
Jenner’s life began with relatively
humble beginnings. Ostensibly,
Jenner was a typical
male child in a typical post-war
nuclear family with three typical
siblings. However, the then
Bruce Jenner grappled with
dyslexia, was often teased mercilessly,
and in his elementary
school years was quite disinterested
in extracurricular activities.
Jenner’s nuclear family
members recount that in looking
back at Jenner’s early years,
the child manifested no outward
signs of the war waging within.
However, despite social mores
and familial and community
expectations shaping Jenner to
ultimately become “the world’s
greatest athlete” after winning
the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics
in Montreal, inside, Jenner
always knew she was female.
Caitlyn always wanted to be
liberated.
Just two years ago, Caitlyn
finally manifested through a series
of gender reassignment surgeries.
However, as the intriguing
story tells its readers, her
journey is ongoing.
Malibu Surfside News sat
down with Jenner a few days
after she returned from London,
where she was awarded
the Huffington Post’s Loud and
Proud award at London’s LGBT
awards.
“This is not a self-help book,”
Jenner adamantly declares.
“This is about my personal journey.”
Jenner’s voice – the one she
has always had – resonates in
an affable, but focused tone. It’s
that same focus that drove Jenner
to become the world’s greatest
athlete which now motivates
her to make a difference by
Caitlyn Jenner, 67, of Malibu,
released her new book, “The
Secrets of My Life,” earlier this
year. image Submitted
telling her own story, using her
nonprofit organization to assist
the transgender community and
nudging an often-recalcitrant society
along the path of evolving
toward a world where transgendered
people are recognized for
whom they are, where they are
accorded civil rights and, ultimately,
receive the respect and
dignity to which every citizen of
the world is entitled.
Because it is her story, of
course the book discusses Jenner
being on the side of a Wheaties
box, a hero to millions as the
quintessential image of virility
and machismo, a television
broadcaster, a motivational
speaker, and a spokesperson for
a myriad of products.
Because it is her story, the
book, as it must, discusses Jenner’s
three marriages and divorces.
It also delves into life
in the world of reality television
with the Kardashians after Jenner
married Kris Jenner in the
1990s. The book also discusses
her “I Am Cait” stardom. Jenner’s
experiences with what she
characterizes as the hounding
and “often brutal paparazzi” are
also discussed.
Because it is her story, most
importantly, the book takes the
reader through Jenner’s harrowing
ups and downs as she
struggled to keep Caitlyn hidden,
often stealing a few moments
to dress as a woman in
order to briefly liberate Caitlyn.
The compelling depictions
of shame, confusion, and selfdoubt
convince that the life of
dealing with gender dysphoria
— the term for one experiencing
a conflict between her or his
physical gender and the gender
with which he or she identifies
— is often a lonely, confusing
and isolating existence.
‘Gender is who you go to bed
as’
Jenner is painfully aware —
as many in the transgender community
whom she seeks to help
have bluntly told her — that her
affluence and personal history
hardly make her a typical person
with gender dysphoria. Nevertheless,
she is convinced that she
can make a difference in furthering
transgender rights.
Jenner has 10 children — six
biological, and four step-children.
She recently welcomed
her 11th grandchild. Part of why
she is so vocal is because she
doesn’t want future generations
of people with gender dysphoria
to go through the brutal experiences
she suffered through, she
explained.
“I want to make some constructive
change in the world for
this marginalized community,”
Jenner says with a probing gaze
which solidifies her conviction
to do just that.
“People don’t understand this
issue,” she said. “Hell, for a long
time, I didn’t understand this issue.”
This is a paradigm illustration
of the old adage that unless one
has walked a mile in another
person’s shoes, one cannot understand
what that person faces.
Many inject issues of morality
into the conversation about
those with gender dysphoria.
Many cannot get their arms
around the issue at all.
Many judge.
“Think about how it would
feel if you know you’re left
handed, but always have your
left hand tied behind your back
and are forced to write with your
right hand,” Jenner said. “This is
not an issue of sexuality. Sex is
who you go to bed with. Gender
is who you go to bed as.”
Jenner is devoted to explaining
gender dysphoria, or the
state of being, as she says, intersexed
and having gender nonconforming
genitalia. She notes
that many well-intended people
grapple with understanding,
and most ask a simple question:
“When did you know that you
were a girl?”
Suffering with gender dysphoria
is something “that is in one’s
head 24-7-365,” Jenner explains.
“You know who you are in your
soul and in your brain.”
Yet, outwardly you present to
others as being of the opposite
sex.
This confuses and often emo-