Appearance v. Reality

(I know that I’m a little late to the Caitlyn Jenner conversation, but I think that this topic goes in handy with this post)

Sometimes, what we perceive isn’t the same as what truly is beneath the picture. People in the brink of suicide with a smile. Someone behind the closet. College kids who get enough sleep. 40-year old people full of energy (And kudos to you if you’re really, REALLY energetic at that age). It’s all for show. Not for what really matters. I think that these people need the most help because unlike everyone else in society, they feel the need to show a fraud and lose their authenticity as a person in order to fit in like everyone else in society. Or maybe this is the wrong explanation. Maybe everyone creates the same ideal person, and unlike the few people who actually appear as they are, they actually show what everyone else wants them to be (Confusing yet?). If you think about it, there’s really no need for anyone to be unique if we follow this cookie-cutter, movie cliche, unoriginal standard. I’d hate to live in a world where everyone is the same. Just imagine it. Everyone doing the same thing at the same time, living their lives in a box filled with emptiness. Of course, there would be harmony to the world, but we just can’t live without being who we are. We need to express ourselves individually to define us humans as undefinable (Well, probably error prone, too). We need to do this because we need to cultivate our different talents and abilities to their best, which I think inadvertently maximizes the productivity and happiness of the entire human race. There isn’t a thing in the world that would convince me otherwise. Now, it seems like I might have gone off topic, but just hear me out. It appears that we have forgotten how to dream, how to imagine, how to think, how to inspire people, how to actually live. This is what it appears. In reality, I think (I’m just being highly optimistic here), we truly live in an era where we are becoming individually distinct. It’s all about being truthful with ourselves and with the people around us and helping each other out with our failures and congratulating the ones that succeed because what better way to improve the world than to show our support for one another. This to me is true humanity. Being close to one another so that we don’t have to pretend we’re something that we’re not. This togetherness will make the world a better place. Maybe we can keep the next person from taking their own life once we stop pretending that they don’t matter and making them feel like they don’t. And who knows. Maybe college kids can get more sleep, too.

Now. On to Caitlyn. This interpretation is completely different from the one at top, but it is still highly relevant. At other times, maybe it is better for us to take in what we see. A man that changed his gender. Simple as that, right? Well, the argument ultimately comes from everyone’s different beliefs as well as their varying amounts of ignorance. Caitlyn is being praised as a hero for doing this, which enrages a lot of people that compare her to someone in the military. (Take these following sentences with a grain of salt, however may you think of current news). I think that heroism comes in many forms, and being a soldier seems to be the most apparent form of heroism (Because it is. No question about it). However, I believe that what Caitlyn did is still a form of heroism. It’s just a little more exposed and a lot more specific. She gave up her privacy to the media, subjected herself to the probability of criticism, and created a lot of support for the LGBTQIA community in the end. Comparatively, soldiers do sacrifice a lot more. Like A LOT more. Like their lives. To the point where they get PTSD and consider killing themselves (More Appearance v. Reality). But Caitlyn just got the attention because you don’t normally see someone do that publicly. It’s not whether or not we agree with the things that other people do in spite of the criticism that they might receive. It’s whether we accept it as it is, which is truly more constructive, or pretend like it never happened, which is arguably very deconstructive to human morality.

Read more: The Controversy Of Sexuality, Envisioning A World Of Pacifism