If you have yet to invest your time in Jill Soloway’s Transparent, you’re probably some sort of transphobic bastard and/or lack proper TV taste. But for those who have seen the brilliance of the show, you’ll notice that the life lived by Mort/Maura is, in many ways, very similar to that of Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner.
Like the protagonist in Transparent, Jenner decided to admit her identity to herself and those close to her in her mid-60s. The clumsy and awkward transition is, indeed, largely related to the age factor in both cases. Because Maura and Caitlyn are still partially caught in an era where being masculine in the most traditional sense possible was expected and demanded of the male gender, letting go of this notion in spite of what their inner desires are crying for is a painful process.
In Maura’s case, part of the sting of the changeover was due in large part to the non-supportive reaction of her three children, Sarah (Amy Landecker), Josh (Jay Duplass) and Ali (Gaby Hoffman). Although Sarah is encouraging from the outset, the implications of the revelation wear on her, as well as Josh and Ali, when Maura sings “Somebody That I Used to Know” at the Trans Got Talent show at the LGBT Center. This is a prime case in point of it being easy to say one is okay with something, but having trouble being okay with it when the visual is actually presented.
While the Jenner/Kardashian family has been openly supportive of Caitlyn’s newfound happiness over realizing her true identity, it is invariably a struggle for any progeny to deal with the patriarch they once knew becoming something in-between.
