IN 1976 AMERICA NEEDED BRUCE JENNER: In 2015 – ‘Bruce Gender’?
Many readers are likely too young to remember Bruce Jenner’s first round of fame. It’s worth noting as he embarks on his new role as Bruce Gender, spokesmanwomaninbetween for the incorporated alphabet soup of the sexual deviance industry.
1970s revisionism is a trend right now. Pop culture presents an image of those years as vibrant, progressive, peaceful, and successful. TV and the internet would have people believe that by 1976 everyone was strolling around in bell-bottom jeans, jersey style shirts with 88 on one side and “Hawaii” on the other, and on their way to a disco or Led Zeppelin concert.
Such revisionism forgets that by 1976 America had left Vietnam precipitating crisis in Cambodia. That just a few years before gasoline prices soared which led to rationing – license plates numbers were used in many places to designate what day someone could wait for hours to fill’er up – thanks to OPEC. The bellicosity of an expansionist Soviet Union. And the racial strife in Boston when school busing was implemented in that supposedly enlightened liberal city. Not to mention rabid crime and near fiscal default in New York.
In other words, 1976 saw an America that was in need of a kick-start. The country was tired and maybe a little short on confidence. That year offered some.
America’s Bicentennial occurred that summer. So did Bruce Jenner’s stirring performance at the Olympics. He became a star, so much so, for a while he was featured on boxes of Wheaties. “Didn’t eat your Wheaties” stems from the connection made between Jenner’s performance and the cereal.
Bruce Jenner was a part of 1976 and a shared shot of oomph that Americans needed and enjoyed.
What then is Bruce Gender?
Bruce will sit before interviews with name-brand celebrities like Dianne Sawyer and pretend that publicity never crossed his/her mind. Bruce will appear on the Kardashians reality show playing his bit part — ironic considering Kim and entourage are famous and without accomplishment while Bruce did once accomplish something for which he became famous.
Invariably, Bruce will go to incredible lengths to force feed his transformation into Bernice is dutifully reported so that everyone knows.
In doing so Bruce Gender will be held up by the LGBTQ-whatever else activist crowd as a person of courage. The transition will be ignored in terms of it’s biology and instead will be described as a cultural statement. Somehow, it’s perfect for the current era.
Just like how in 1976 America needed a hero like Bruce Jenner, in 2015 we will be told we need Bruce Gender.
Do we? 1976 was understandable. Is our national spirit so out of whack we today need the example of Bruce Gender to spur us forward? If so, where are we going?
Image: http://privatenotebook.blogspot.com/2012/03/beakfast-of-champions.html