Piers Morgan isn"t exactly known for his tasteful questions, and he"s once again demonstrating that.
This time, he asks Caitlyn Jenner about how her "physique" has changed since her youth.
As you can see in the video below, Caitlyn shut him down right away, explaining that his question isn"t just inappropriate — for many trans women, it"s dangerous.
Caitlyn Jenner has been dragged by many in the trans community for not, they believe, doing a good job of representing the community.
(Remember the trans woman who called Caitlyn Jenner a fraud? That woman is now running for office)
But … it looks like things might be getting a little better.
See, Piers Morgan — through innuendo — asks prying questions about Caitlyn"s body, now versus in her past.
And Cait shuts him down pretty epically, even talking about how ignorant questions like Piers" can make life itself dangerous for trans women.
So, Piers Morgan holds up an old plastic action figure of Caitlyn Jenner from her Olympian days, long before her transition.
(Total side note, but have you ever seen the episode of Murder, She Wrote that Cait was on? Seeing her deadname on the credits a couple of years ago, back when the series was on Netflix, was such a surprise for me)
Piers made the unfortunate choice to gesture to the action figure, and talk about her "physique," asking how it differs now versus then, saying:
"Obviously, certain areas we know."
Yikes. Cait doesn"t let that go by unchallenged, saying:
"See you made a comment there and that"s why you would get in trouble."
"You just said, "Oh certain areas." That, to a trans person, is disrespectful."
For the record, asking anybody about their private parts in an interview is usually disrespectful unless that person has already indicated that they"re fine talking about it.
Cait explains: "Because you don"t make a joke about that."
"Because it"s not funny, it"s life."
She goes on to say:
"And it’s a part of my life and it"s a very serious part of my life."
Piers inquires why life can"t be a joke, or whatever. We guess that maybe he thought that he"d get away with his creepy questions?
Caitlyn is not amused, saying: "I don"t take it and I take that very seriously."
She even ties the issue to other trans folks.
"And so, out of respect to myself and the community, it"s not something that you joke about."
Cait talks more about how this impacts trans women, and not just herself:
"It"s something, as I said before, this is serious stuff. People die over this issue. It"s not a joke."
It"s worth noting that Piers Morgan is hardly the first person to ask wildly inappropriate questions of a trans woman he"s interviewing.
But it"s 2018. This should not still be happening.
Back in 2014, Katie Couric interviewed Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera, And during that interview, Couric asked some very inappropriate genital questions without realizing that she was doing anything wrong.
Janet Mock did a famous takedown of that behavior — if you"re not going to ask a cis celebrity about their genitals, then don"t ask a trans celebrity about theirs.
Katie Couric, for the record, apologized and later did a series about trans folks, and stated explicitly that part of what inspired her to do the series was her past mistakes.
Caitlyn Jenner is right — transphobic questions can be life-for-death for trans folks who aren"t millionaire celebrities.
For the record, though, what Piers was saying would be rude and creepy to anyone.
Would he, while interviewing Martha Stewart, ask questions about her breasts or genitals? Would he ask any 68-year-old woman about her "physique" in contrast to when she was a young athlete? We hope not.
Anyway, while nobody"s private areas are any business of ours, this is additionally true for trans people. It might become appropriate to ask if you"re dating a trans woman, but that"s about it.
