What’s a “normal woman”? That’s what Caitlyn Jenner tells her friend she wants to be in a clip from the Sunday, Aug. 30, episode of I Am Cait. But her pal, national GLAAD co-chair and Barnard College English professor Jenny Boylan, bristles when Cait uses the term.
“It would be very attractive to me to have a guy treat me like a woman,” Caitlyn laments, to Boylan’s surprise. When the prof asks Cait to clarify, the Olympian explains, “That you would be treated like a normal woman.”
That doesn’t sit right with Boylan, who presses further. “What do you mean, ‘a normal woman’?”
Says the E! star, “Like any other woman on the street, and not make it this big trans thing or this or that — just a normal relationship.”
That’s when Boylan, Barnard’s Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence, lays down some knowledge. “You know what? Caitlyn Jenner, you are a normal woman, right now, today. You don’t need a man to make you a woman,” she says as Cait nods in agreement. “A woman can make you a woman. I think that’s a thing that women do — we look to men to give us self-worth.”
The scholar continues, “Now that you’re in the sisterhood, you have gone to such trouble to become a woman — don’t be a stupid one. Be a smart one.”
I Am Cait airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on E!.