Posted on 06/03/2015 7:01:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A surgically damaged man appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, and the applause is mandatory. There are some who call this latest turn in the sexual revolution radical or transformative. Yet, in reality, the only thing radical about Bruce Jenners transformation into Caitlyn is the harm to his body, inflicted in a desperate quest to be something that hes most assuredly not: a woman.
The transgender movement is but one small branch of the immense, self-regarding tree of the sexual revolution, and since it shares the same logic as such cultural catastrophes as no-fault divorce and abortion on demand, its acceptance by elite culture was and is a foregone conclusion. After all, if the sexual revolutionaries believe with religious fervor that personal fulfillment and self-actualization are so important that its worth inflicting a grisly death on a wholly innocent baby to preserve, then a little gender-reassignment surgery is just one more, small step for (person)kind.
p>All of this self-regard comes at high cost. To those who say that Bruce Jenners body is his own that he can do what he wants with it realize that during this process his many children lost a father, and his wife lost a husband. These losses occur during every transition, as the sexual revolution demands upon pain of shame and banishment that family members treat fathers as mothers, sons as daughters, and husbands as wives. The Jenner/Kardashian clan has expressed support (though Kris and Kylie Jenner are still obviously struggling), but really, what other option did they have? For people who inhabit the pop-culture tribe, you disapprove of sexual radicalism at your own very high professional risk.
The only thing radical about Bruce Jenners transformation into Caitlyn is the harm to his body, inflicted in a desperate quest to be something that hes most assuredly not: a woman.
Were growing increasingly accustomed to bearing the costs of sexual selfishness and radical personal autonomy. Robert Putnams new book, Our Kids, reads like one long treatise on what happens when families fall apart. The battle over same-sex marriage treats adult sexual fulfillment as the highest social good, one worth trampling core civil liberties to enact and preserve. In spite of this obvious cost, liberals recently exulted over Gallup-poll results showing that Americans had shift[ed] left on virtually every significant social issue with increasing support for divorce, extramarital sex, gay sex, polygamy, and adultery. The formula for cultural decay is by now quite clear: Short-term gratification leads to longer-term misery. Yet the sexual revolutionaries maintain their cultural grip by owning the pleasure and blaming others for the pain.
Liberals trumpet the flexible family relationships that allow people to escape dysfunctional unions. As for the poverty, depression, and increasing inequality between two-parent families and the transient remainder? Well, thats the fault of globalization, insufficient funding for public schools, and the war on unions. Leftists applaud a sexual libertinism that allows a person to enjoy a life of play and maximize their pleasure. As for the feelings of guilt, shame, and confusion that accompany a life of casual sexual intimacy? Well, thats the fault of religious scolds or insensitive and predatory men.
The one-sentence philosophical summary of the sexual revolutionary is My body is my business. Yet that comes with an unspoken corollary: Consequences be damned. While there are necessary legal and political responses to sexual radicalism (preserving religious liberty and working to ban abortion is a good start), the true response to these trends isnt encapsulated by the phrase there oughta be a law but rather there oughta be a culture.
There is no single person who can shift an entire culture, much less materially restrain cultural drift, but we can each do something. Increasingly, that something means resisting the temptation to stay silent, to acquiesce in absurdities for the sake of temporary social (or social-media) peace. Intimidated silence advances the cause of sexual radicalism every bit as much as enthusiastic acceptance. By refusing to speak, we contribute to the notion that even conservatives understand that something is wrong something is shameful about our own deepest beliefs.
Why does the intolerant Left so vigilantly police speech introducing even a Twitter bot to automate the scolding about the correct gender pronoun to use in reference to Jenner? Because they know speech including simple pronouns matters. Dont consent. Laverne Cox is not a woman, and neither is Caitlyn Jenner. He is a man with breast implants. Hes always been a man, and he will always be a man. Yes, hes deeply troubled. Our hearts go out to him in his pain, but the answer is not found in radical self-regard, and its certainly not found in surgical mutilation. He is a man created in Gods image, yet a man experiencing deep anguish about his very creation. He needs our prayers, not our applause.
David French is an attorney and staff writer at National Review.
Don’t know if it made the cover, but Vanity Fair outdid itself with the CGI Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Jenner was easier.
That sums it up.
That must have stretched their capability to the limits. I wonder how many computers they destroyed in the effort?
Well said.
According to studies on men who get their penises amputated to “become women”, the aftermath is shockingly horrifying to them. High suicide rates. In the end, they feel mutilated and the hormones they take lead to an early death. All these people who cheer them on reject them when they come out unhappy. : (
God created us, all life and the earth with certain operation usage rules/guidelines in the Bible. If we do otherwise, things won’t work out so well. It’s like buying a car and then pretending the manual was wrong about changing the oil. The engine won’t thrive nor last.
Just because one cam claim a gemder preference. Unless their body parts change with it. As with discharges of eggs from a male body part, and sperm from a female body part, that really would validate their claim. Otherwise that claim would seem to be a mental disorder./s
You are absolutely correct regarding the corrosive effect that this celebration of decadence affects individuals and values. Look to a “surge” of young people who “discover” their homosexuality , “true gender “ or whatever. Before long it will be rare to prosecute child molesters. However social reality abhors a vacuum. In post Christian decadent America, it is no accident that that same media overtly finds itself celebrating Islam and its harsh dictates.
He needs to be locked up in a mental institution and I’m certainly not praying for him.
Bruce Jenner, for whatever reason, if he wants to become a woman or a facsimile there of, fine.
But please do it in private, do not appear on the cover of Vanity Fair or any other magazine.
I have said before, this country has transformed itself into Bizarro World. i guess there ain’t going back now!
My prayer is that his deviancy, and the celebration of it, does not touch our kids.
I agree he will find nothing that he is seeking and kill himself and i bet in a blockbuster ratings fashion
At least he/she/it is infamous for doing SOMETHING. The rest of the Kardashian shills haven’t done anything except convert oxygen into carbon dioxide for their fame.
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