{"id":2293,"date":"2015-07-22T21:35:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T04:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a-mountain.com\/?p=2293"},"modified":"2015-07-22T21:35:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T04:35:58","slug":"if-you-missed-jason-gays-column-in-the-wsj-on-caitlyn-jenner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/?p=2293","title":{"rendered":"If you missed Jason Gay&#8217;s column in the WSJ on Caitlyn Jenner,"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"clearfix byline-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"byline\">It is here:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"byline\">By<\/p>\n<div class=\"author mobile-scrim hasMenu\" data-scrim=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;author&quot;,&quot;header&quot;:&quot;Jason Gay&quot;,&quot;subhead&quot;:&quot;The Wall Street Journal&quot;,&quot;list&quot;:[{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;icon&quot;:&quot;bio&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;http:\/\/topics.wsj.com\/person\/A\/biography\/6268&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Biography&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;icon&quot;:&quot;twitter&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;http:\/\/twitter.com\/JasonWSJ&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;@JasonWSJ&quot;},{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;icon&quot;:&quot;email&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;mailto:Jason.Gay@wsj.com&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Jason.Gay@wsj.com&quot;}]}\"><span class=\"name\">JASON GAY<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time class=\"timestamp\">Updated July 20, 2015 10:17 a.m. ET<\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"comments-count-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It is not insignificant that when Caitlyn Jenner spoke in public last week, she spoke to a room full of jocks. Jocks like herself. The best, the champs, the stars, the MVPs. The unchallenged A-side of the American cafeteria, on another night they are lavished like royalty. Those ESPY Awards? That\u2019s an intimidating crowd. Just watching at home on TV, I feel there\u2019s at least a 20% chance I will get stuffed into a locker.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s be honest: Sports can be a brilliant catalyst for social progress\u2014it happened with Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King and Magic Johnson, among many others, and its crucial lessons of sacrifice and teamwork can ballast a lifetime\u2014but sports can be a backward place, too. Antisocial. Mean-spirited. Bullying. A sports section in 2015 veers between episodes of greatness and plunges of arrested development. The other day a pair of New Jersey fathers were arrested for having a bloody fight at their daughters\u2019 travel softball game.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, you have got to be kidding me. Grown dads.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&lt;br \/&gt;\n  media-object&lt;br \/&gt;\n    wrap&lt;br \/&gt;\n  \" data-layout=\"wrap&lt;br \/&gt;\n        \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"media-object-rich-text\">\n<h4>MORE JASON GAY<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"articleList\">\n<li><a class=\"icon none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/can-one-tweet-make-you-a-better-golfer-1436999285\" target=\"_self\">Can One Tweet Make You a Better Golfer?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"icon none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/serena-novak-and-tenniss-brilliant-weekend-1436731534\" target=\"_self\">Serena, Novak and Tennis\u2019s Brilliant Weekend<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"icon none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-battle-for-deandre-jordan-1436460596?tesla=y\" target=\"_self\">The Battle for DeAndre Jordan<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s speech Wednesday night in Los Angeles? This was rarer, bigger stuff. Sports in service of a larger idea. It might not have been meaningful to everyone, but that\u2019s OK. It didn\u2019t have to be meaningful to everyone. That wasn\u2019t really the point.<\/p>\n<p>There was some aggro howling about ESPN\u2019s decision to give its Arthur Ashe Courage Award to Jenner, to which the only reasonable response is: give me a giant break. I never thought I would live to see the day when an ESPY was treated like a Fields Medal, or a Guggenheim Fellowship. Jenner\u2019s award was contrived? You don\u2019t say. Virtually every public awards ceremony is a contrivance\u2014Louis B. Mayer admitted the Academy Awards were at least partly launched as a way to kiss up to filmmakers (\u201cIf I got them cups and awards they\u2019d kill themselves to produce what I wanted,\u201d Meyer is quoted saying in Scott Eyman\u2019s \u201cLion of Hollywood\u201d). The ESPYs are designed by a powerful sports network to entertain and relationship-build and to fill the humid doldrums between basketball and football. Over the years there have been genuine, stirring moments\u2014cancer-diagnosed college basketball coach Jim Valvano\u2019s impassioned plea in 1993 to \u201cdon\u2019t ever give up,\u201d and the late ESPN anchor Stuart Scott\u2019s poignant speech last year in receipt of an award named for Valvano. But mostly the ESPYs are showbiz, a chance to watch athletes try to laugh at themselves and see how many Gronkowskis can climb out of a party bus.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&lt;br \/&gt;\n  media-object&lt;br \/&gt;\n    inline&lt;br \/&gt;\n  \" data-layout=\"inline&lt;br \/&gt;\n        \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"media-object-image enlarge-image renoImageFormat-P img-inline\">\n<div class=\"image-container  responsive-media\" data-mobile-ratio=\"66.6222%\" data-layout-ratio=\"66.6222%\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Honoree Caitlyn Jenner and U.S. soccer's Abby Wambach onstage during the 2015 ESPY Awards.\" src=\"http:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/BN-JL592_JENNER_P_20150719155902.jpg\" alt=\"Honoree Caitlyn Jenner and U.S. soccer's Abby Wambach onstage during the 2015 ESPY Awards.\" data-intent=\"\" data-in-base-src=\"http:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/BN-JL592_JENNER_P_20150719155902.jpg\" data-in-at4units-src=\"http:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/BN-JL592_JENNER_P_20150719155902.jpg\" data-enlarge=\"http:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/BN-JL592_JENNER_M_20150719155902.jpg\" \/><span class=\"image-enlarge\">ENLARGE<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"wsj-article-caption\"><span class=\"wsj-article-caption-content\">Honoree Caitlyn Jenner and U.S. soccer&#8217;s Abby Wambach onstage during the 2015 ESPY Awards.<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"wsj-article-credit\"><span class=\"wsj-article-credit-tag\">PHOTO:\u00a0<\/span>GETTY IMAGES<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Naturally, as if on cue, there was a tide of Internet misinformation about Jenner\u2019s selection\u2014a common meme was that ESPN had passed over a deserving military war hero in order to honor Jenner, or had chosen Jenner over the late Lauren Hill, a college basketball player who had managed to play a final game despite a terminal brain cancer diagnosis. This was untrue\u2014Jenner had upset no one\u2019s specific bid for the Ashe award, and the inspirational Hill was honored elsewhere in the evening. Meanwhile, it was ugly how free some Jenner\/ESPN critics felt to torque the legacy of Ashe, a groundbreaking athlete who led a life of extraordinary grace and compassion. Ashe\u2019s own daughter, Camera, applauded the selection of Jenner. \u201cShe is the epitome of courage,\u201d she told the New York Daily News.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hide4 textAd bodyRealtorAd realtorAdLong\">\n<div class=\"realtorAd\">\n<div class=\"adSpec\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"body-AD_RE\" class=\"wsj-responsive-ad-wrap wsj-ad-article-body-realtor\" data-ad-options=\"{&quot;adId&quot;:&quot;AD_RE&quot;,&quot;adUnitPath&quot;:&quot;\/2\/moveinc.wsj.com\/lifestyle_article&quot;,&quot;adSize&quot;:[[700,82],[540,82]],&quot;adSizeMap&quot;:{&quot;at12units&quot;:[[540,82]],&quot;at16units&quot;:[[700,82]]},&quot;autoRefresh&quot;:false,&quot;adTargeting&quot;:{&quot;metazone&quot;:null,&quot;msrc&quot;:null,&quot;circ&quot;:&quot;snippet_free_pass&quot;,&quot;bkuuid&quot;:&quot;xeo25x9999e24nop&quot;},&quot;disableRefresh&quot;:false}\" data-tracking=\"moveinc.wsj.com\/lifestyle_article\" data-cb-ad-id=\"RealtorAd\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/2\/moveinc.wsj.com\/lifestyle_article_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/2\/moveinc.wsj.com\/lifestyle_article_0\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/2\/moveinc.wsj.com\/lifestyle_article_0\" width=\"700\" height=\"82\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Backlash was expected, of course. Those willful misrepresentations exposed the intertwined currents of antipathy and ignorance surrounding Jenner\u2019s story. This was not going to be easy.<\/p>\n<p>And yet here\u2019s the thing: Jenner got up there on stage in Los Angeles and made it look easy. Even if it was not. Even if she said \u201cthis transition has been harder on me than anything I could imagine,\u201d a sober reminder of an experience not uncommon to her. Jenner spoke about a transgender teenager, Sam Taub, who had not long ago taken his life. Another, Mercedes Williamson, found stabbed to death in Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>It was a tough speech to a tougher room, but Jenner crushed it. \u201cI\u2019m clear with my responsibility going forward\u2014to tell my story the right way, for me to keep learning, to reshape the landscape of how trans issues are viewed, how trans people are treated,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then more broadly to promote a very simple idea: accepting people for who they are. Accepting people\u2019s differences.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"&lt;br \/&gt;\n  media-object&lt;br \/&gt;\n    inline&lt;br \/&gt;\n  \" data-layout=\"inline&lt;br \/&gt;\n        \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"wsj-article-pullquote \">\n<div class=\"pullquote-border\">\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"l-qt\">\u2018<\/span>Every so often an athlete arrives with the power to change the status quo, because the athlete is undeniable. That\u2019s what made this powerful. Jenner\u2019s not an outsider. She is in the club.<span class=\"r-qt\">\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It is very rare in American life you can actually hear the wheels of the culture grind forward in real time. But that\u2019s what was happening here. Sports prefers to stick with archetypes\u2014matinee idol quarterbacks, underappreciated linemen, stoic coaches, flaky pitchers. Jenner herself fit neatly into a formula: Olympic champion, symbol of American excellence, flag-draped icon from the 1976 Montreal Games. But every so often an athlete arrives with the power to change the status quo, because the athlete is undeniable. That\u2019s what made this powerful. Jenner\u2019s not an outsider. She is in the club.<\/p>\n<p>She is also, by her own admission, flawed\u2014that Vanity Fair cover story is unvarnished about Jenner\u2019s past shortcomings as a husband and a father. But in her speech, Jenner made it very clear: She is suited for this moment. People may find her comfort in the spotlight off-putting or dislike that she\u2019s doing a reality-TV show or cringe at the narcissism empire built by the Kardashian clan, but this role she is assuming in the mainstream? Not for a person who shrinks. \u201cIf you want to call me names, make jokes, doubt my intentions, go ahead, because the reality is, I can take it,\u201d she said, reminding the audience she was the MVP of her high-school football team (perfect). \u201cBut for the thousands of kids out there coming to terms with being true to who they are, they shouldn\u2019t have to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jenner\u2019s OK with all of the noise. With the ignorance. With, frankly, the hate (if you spend hours rattling around the Internet writing crude things about Jenner, it\u2019s time to go take a long, contemplative walk in the forest). She\u2019s OK with the people who say they\u2019re fine with Jenner but just don\u2019t want her story \u201cin their face,\u201d which intentionally or not, is a position that tacitly denies a person their right to live a visible and recognized life. She\u2019s OK with the ludicrous accusation that attention to Jenner takes away from other deserving sports stories\u2014nobody\u2019s talking less about the amazing Jordan Spieth or amateur Paul Dunne (holy smokes Paul Dunne) at the British Open or Mike Trout or U.S. Women\u2019s National Soccer Team or goodness knows the NFL because Jenner decided to tell her story. (Spaceships could be hovering over the Washington Monument and it would not curb coverage of the NFL.)<\/p>\n<p>Jenner is OK with all of that, because she knows\u2014agrees!\u2014this is not about her.<\/p>\n<p>But Jenner said it best:<\/p>\n<p><em>For the people out there wondering what this is all about\u2014whether it\u2019s about courage or controversy or publicity\u2014well, I\u2019ll tell you what it\u2019s all about. It\u2019s about what happens from here. It\u2019s not just about one person, it\u2019s about thousands of people. It\u2019s not just about me, it\u2019s about all of us accepting one another. We are all different. That\u2019s not a bad thing, that\u2019s a good thing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what Caitlyn Jenner said last week in public, and with courage. End of story. And a beginning, too.<\/p>\n<p>Write to\u00a0Jason Gay at\u00a0<a class=\"icon \" href=\"mailto:Jason.Gay@wsj.com\" target=\"_blank\">Jason.Gay@wsj.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is here: By JASON GAY Updated July 20, 2015 10:17 a.m. ET It is not insignificant that when Caitlyn Jenner spoke in public last week, she spoke to a room full of jocks. Jocks like herself. The best, the champs, the stars, the MVPs. The unchallenged A-side of the American cafeteria, on another night [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions\/2295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}