Last night, Jill Soloway won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and gave a brilliant and moving acceptance speech. She highlighted the “trans civil rights problem” and discussed the inequalities her own trans parent faces under current laws. Soloway calls her parent her “moppa” (a word she lent to the fictional Los Angeles family in her series Transparent). And Jeffrey Tambor, who won an award for portraying “moppa” Maura Pfefferman on the show, also spoke, thanking the transgender community for “your inspiration” and “for letting us be part of the change.” It was a big night for trans visibility.
Coincidentally, in an interview with WWD, published yesterday, Kendall Jenner also spoke about her family’s real-life (though also televised) experience of her father’s transition. Perhaps the most touching part of the interview — in which she also divulges her #goals to be like Christy Turlington and her freakish organization skills — is her account of why she calls Caitlyn not “moppa” or “mom,” but “dad.”
“I’ve known since I was a kid,” she says. “He never confirmed it to me, but I’ve known for a very long time. It’s the same person. My dad says it herself sometimes, it’s kind of like mourning the loss of someone, because it is. My dad is my dad, but he’s not there physically anymore. But she lets me call her dad – that’s the last little piece of dad I’ve got.”
The model went on to discuss the difficulties that pronouns present, especially when talking about the past – something Caitlyn herself has addressed (for her landmark Diane Sawyer interview, Caitlyn requested the use of male pronouns). On a micro level, the interview shines a light on a very personal aspect of one specific, much publicized relationship. On a macro level, like Soloway’s Emmys speech, Jenner’s words call attention to the fact that the names we use for one and other do matter.
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Text Alice Newell-Hanson
Image via @caitlynjenner