Caitlyn Jenner has shown incredible courage in the face of public scrutiny. Pardon the pun, but she’s got bigger balls than most of us do and I greatly admire her for being exactly who she wants to be.
Rightfully so, Caitlyn is being heralded as a real hero to countless people who need her kind of heroism right now, and the importance of such an encouraging role model does not deserve to be undermined. She is the sort of example that I want my own children to emulate because there is no shame in being true to yourself.
In the wake of her story, though, unbalanced comparisons of what constitutes acts of “real heroism” have taken social media by fire. Some say that the term, “hero,” has no place alongside Caitlyn Jenner’s name because soldiers are real heroes. Firefighters and EMTs are real heroes. Children who are battling life-threatening illnesses, they are real heroes.
I call bullshit. Real heroes come in many forms.
What makes a hero? Let’s take a look at the proper definition of the term, shall we?
hero | ˈhi(ə)rō |
noun (pl. heroes)
1. a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities
2. (also hero sandwich)N. Amer. another term for submarine sandwich.
The guy who pointed out that I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe last week was a hero. I could have spent the rest of the day shuffling that shit paper around and been completely oblivious to it. How many people would have seen it and said nothing? How many people would have snickered and made fun of me behind my back? I could have earned a new nickname like “Shit-Shoe” or “TP Tripper,” had he not done the noble thing and tapped me on the shoulder.
I realize that in the grand scheme of things, his heroic deed is minor in the eyes of many. He didn’t slay any dragons or lose all of his limbs while defending my honor. Still, for me personally and in that moment, he demonstrated a heroic quality that I admired.
Perspective is everything. You can’t compare apples to oranges and say that one is more of a fruit than the other. They’re different types of fruit, yes, but they’re fruit nonetheless. The ideal representation of heroism may change from person to person, it’s all a matter of opinion, but opinion doesn’t negate a hero’s worthiness of the title, and it certainly doesn’t make one more superior than the other.
The act of being courageous is not a fucking competition. Speaking of, there is a popular meme which is currently spreading false information about how Noah Galloway, an army veteran who lost an arm and a leg in Iraq, was the runner up for ESPN’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award that will be awarded to Caitlyn Jenner on July 15 of this year. It simply isn’t true; there was never a list of official contenders for this ESPY award. According to ESPN’s media release, “The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is meant to honor individuals whose contributions transcend sports through courageous action. Sometimes that courage is demonstrated over the course of a lifetime and sometimes it is demonstrated in a single act that shines a light on an important contemporary issue.”
A former Olympic gold medalist and now a personal champion of the LGBT community, Caitlyn Jenner is deserving of such an honor. That’s why she was chosen to be its recipient. The asinine rumor that she “beat out” an army veteran is but one more unnecessary spoon stirring the shit pot, drawing negative attention from a truly inspiring act of personal courage and causing an uproar where one isn’t warranted.
As if that weren’t bad enough, there is an online petition requesting the Olympic Committee to strip Caitlyn of her 1976 gold medal under the guise that she is a woman who unfairly competed in the men’s decathlon. Thousands of digital signatures are now sending a message to the world that it’s acceptable and encouraged to punish another person for making the conscious decision to be comfortable with who they are.
Way to go, Internet.
You want to know what the really sad thing is? For some people, the creator of that petition is a real hero, a person who is admired for having the “courage” to speak out. Like I said, it’s all about perspective, no matter how fucked up that perspective might be.
