How Caitlyn Jenner Won The ESPY

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This is a guest post from TallahasseeScene’s Paul McFadden

This year, Caitlyn Jenner received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs, an annual sports award show hosted by ESPN.

This article is not meant to take anything away from the courageousness that Jenner has exhibited throughout her gender transition. It goes without saying that she has quickly become a sensational icon for the transgender community.

But Caitlyn Jenner should not have received an ESPY award.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I can’t help feeling like “Caitlyn Jenner” is just another Kardashian PR stunt. To me, it just seems like one last hoorah for an aging Olympic athlete whose prominence was setting on the horizon.

Before you go full rage on me, let’s rewind 30 years for just a minute.

Enter Bruce Jenner, former 1976 United States Olympic decathlon champion. Then fast-forward to 2007 and Jenner and his ex-wife, Kris Jenner, who manages the “careers” of Jenner’s stepdaughters and spawn, launch a television reality show called “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” on the E! network.

The rest is history.

The show revitalized Jenner’s fame after a decades-long absence from the spotlight.

It’s no secret that the Kardashian Klan could be the most humbled and conventional family on television since the Brady Bunch. Their fortune is a result of their hard work and dedication to improving their already exquisite set of collective talents.

JUST KIDDING.

The Kardashians are dysfunctional, and a sex tape between a D-list rapper and an F-list socialite catalyzed their fame.

I say this to reinforce the fact that the family is a group of media hounds who crave attention as much as they need air. This is why I question the veracity of Jenner’s life-changing decision and continuously wonder if there could be ulterior motives.

If you think about it, the name “Caitlyn” is poised to make more money than “Bruce” ever did.

Before Bruce was Caitlyn, he separated himself from the Kardashian clique through a divorce. Consequently, this meant less TV time and money. But since becoming Caitlyn, there has been a Vanity Fair magazine cover shoot and even a highly publicized interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer. Her official Twitter account reached 1.1 million followers in its first four hours, and a documentary titled “I Am Cait” aired Monday on E!.

All of this translates to a major payday for Caitlyn, which in turn could prove to be the ultimate career move and cement Jenner’s name in history books way past her lifetime.

Now back to the ESPYs.

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is usually awarded to someone who A) was at the top of their sport or B) whose actions or contributions have transcended the world of athletics. Personally, I think ESPN could have easily found an athlete with a little bit more merit.

Our generation primarily knows Jenner as a reality show star, not the Olympic decathlon champion. It has been almost 40 years since she participated in anything pertaining to the realm of sports.

However, the decision to choose Caitlyn Jenner as the recipient for the award put the network in the ultimate position.

All eyes were tuned in to watch Jenner’s first public appearance since she came out as transgender. Her ESPYs appearance (in addition to moving the award show from ESPN to ABC) caused a 250 percent boost in viewership from the previous year’s telecast, according to CNN.

Now, if you’re still fuming at me, hang on a second. I’m not necessarily alone in my thinking. Many other sports stories have made their rounds on the Internet from those who also felt that Jenner was undeserving of the award.

Among the most discussed was that of Army veteran Noah Galloway, who lost an arm and a leg in a roadside bombing accident in Iraq. Galloway was falsely claimed to have finished runner-up to Jenner in winning the award. He competes in Crossfit events, runs marathons and even finished third place in the show “Dancing with the Stars,” all while having a few artificial limbs.

There was also the story of Lauren Hill, the freshman basketball player from Mount St. Joseph University, who succumbed to her battle with inoperable brain cancer.

But, in all honesty, award shows are mostly politics and many people win awards undeservingly. People win whether it’s because of their popularity or due to the strategic agenda of the award committee. How else can you explain Macklemore infamously winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album over Kendrick Lamar or Leo DiCaprio losing the Best Actor Oscar for “The Wolf of Wall Street?”

REALLY!?

But I digress.

I can only hope that the end result of all this will be acceptance for transgender people everywhere.

Featured photo courtesy of: Ripcord