Will Caitlyn Jenner Become a Not so Little Old Lady?

“Jenner reveals new name Caitlyn, breaks Twitter record,” (Reuters, 6/1/15) was one of the many news items propelled by this month's Vanity Fair cover—a mixture between a coming out of the closet celebration and a debutante presentation. What’s disappointing is that Jenner has chosen to adopt a classic image of feminity that verges on parody. She’s almost like one of the beautiful pre-op transsexuals you used to find in70’s after hours clubs whose exaggerated glamour was like a cartoon, a kind of female version of Popeye in which silicone pumped up breasts the way spinach exaggerated the comic book character’s infamous biceps. Not surprisingly, Annie Leibovitz who has shot so many cultural icons, photographed the Vanity Fair spread. As The Daily Beast reported besides her storied athletic career, the newly minted woman was setting other records too (“Caitlyn Jenner, 65, is the Oldest Woman to Appear on the Cover of Vanity Fair” 6/2/15). And what does the future hold for Caitlyn Jenner? What kind of an older woman will she be? Will she be one of those Upper East Side dowagers like Brooke Astor who spend their later years attending charity balls? Will she attempt to make up for lost time with the help of botox? Will she even attempt to enjoy the pleasures of being a kept woman or will she just turn out to be another aging overweight starlet like say the late Elizabeth Taylor? Jenner is a Christian and could easily end up being one of those white haired church going types who run bingo games on Monday night. Jenner was married to Kris Kardashian the former wife of the late Robert Kardashian, the lawyer and father to Kim, but it’s unlikely that all the hormone replacement therapy and even gender reassignment surgery in the world will ever give her the kind of fundament that her step daughter recently paraded on the cover of another glossy (“No Filter: An Afternoon with Kim Kardashian," Paper Magazine, 11/12/14).