I could never see it. He had an extremely bland and also slightly rat-like face:
To me, he looked like a cross between Pete Rose --
-- and Sandra Bullock.
And I'm not the type who's reluctant to say another guy is good-looking, as I've shown here and here and here and here.
In that last link, I described Sean Connery as the perfect amalgam of male beauty and toughness. Jenner was the opposite: bland to a fault, a him-bo with a Prince(ss) Valiant haircut.
In retrospect, we know why he came across that way.
Of course, now that a he's in full transvestite mode, he's even less appealing.
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He does look like a cross between those two! I do think he was pretty good looking for a ordinary guy.
The old haircut looks feminine. I wonder if he felt like a woman all along. Maybe even steroids made him appear more masculine. You think he was on them, don't you?
Steven --
By 1976, when I assume the first picture was taken, long hair was pretty much out of fashion for guys, and even those guys who had longish hair tended not to wear it as long as Jenner did. And he kept his long hair long past the time when it had gone out of fashion.
Yes, I think he was on steroids. He had the top-heavy body and the convex deltoids (rare on white guys) which generally are steroid signatures.
To me, Bruce Jenner was an average-looking guy, an Olympic winner. I personally was never attracted to him. Today, I feel badly for him because he now tries to be a woman, achieving this fantasy through dressing like a woman and through medical procedures. When I see pictures of Bruce Jenner, I can't say that I feel happy for the man - instead, I'm still taken aback by his "feminine" appearance, mystified by it all.
-birdie
Birdie --
I might feel bad for him if he were doing it in Christine Jorgensen's time, but why feel bad for him now? There's never been anyone in history more celebrated and feted for his "courage" than Jenner has been. I might have felt bad for Christine Jorgensen in the 50's. Plus Jenner has not even tarn the final step. As of this writing, he's still just a transvestite.
Where I live, there have been men that I've encountered who dress up like and try to look like women. One man was a white guy who looked strange in his get-up. When I see these men, I feel sorry for them, that they have this internal struggle to contend with (on a daily basis), through no fault of their own.
-birdie
I would agree with the idea Jenner was involved with steroids. At the time the eastern Europeans were all reputedly steroid users-- the woman swimmers for example were always suspected of better living through chemistry. So an athlete competing where a small edge makes the difference between winning and losing and these are guys who do ANYTHING to win. Well it makes that kind of competitor very susceptible to the lure of drugs giving them an added boost especially in an arena where the competition is reputedly using PEDS. But suppose you pump the body full of testosterone for years and then drop it. what happens tot he body under that circumstance? It might be the body responds from the withdrawal by creating estrogen or evolves to the opposite of testosterone. Anyway, I doubt much is written about the after effects of years of steroids but I doubt there is much good news to 'roid users. Jenner looked like an old grandmother for years before all this identity stuff.
Old looking grandmothers don't often get their own reality show or time in the spotlight.(ok kudos to Betty White)
Dave ---
Everything you say is true. I wrote about the long term effects of steroid use (and Jenner's and Sosa's subsequent appearance) here:
http://justnotsaid.blogspot.com/2010/07/before-and-after.html
How come transvestites are always well over 6 foot?
Andrew
Andrew --
I'd never noticed that correlation. Maybe it's just that the more noticeable (identifiable) ones are tall. And, I guess, Ru Paul and Jenner are probably the most famous ones.
Anonymous said...
To me, Bruce Jenner was an average-looking guy, an Olympic winner. I personally was never attracted to him.
Average looking? No way. Have you seen what average is?
Jenner looks like a type of lesbian in the second photo.
About steroids - notice the greats like Lou Ferrigno and Franco Columbu. I don't know if they used but from what I remember seeing they have aged abnormally well for anybody. Not used up, not feminine, not weird.
Check out Jenner here from a 1980s movie with The Village People.
He has definitely been driven by a need for a media presence, for fame even though he has not much to offer. But that's true of most of the people in media nowadays.
The next step is going to be some people doing pay-per-view suicides.
Rifleman --
Franco Columbu may or may not have been clean, but I always had the impression of him that he was incredibly strong naturally. (Unlike Arnold, he was a champion power lifter as well as a body builder.) And, at 5' 4", he may just have been one of those short guys who maintained his vitality for a long time. I'm sure he's kept working out for his entire life, too. Watching Pumping Iron, I got the impression Ferrigno may actually have been clean, at least early on. And Ferrigno's career was entirely dependent on his staying in shape, so he had motive to do so. But you're right, neither man ever became weirdly feminized the way Jenner did, in fact remained the opposite.
Jenner didn't have any concrete career aspirations after he won his Olympic gold medal, so he just coasted along on his fame. I was surprised when the movie he first appeared in was that weird "Can't Stop the Music," it seemed to go against his (at the time) wholesome image. After that he sort of hung out on the fringes of Hollywood, I have no idea how he made his money; as you say, he didn't have much to offer.
Ha, I'm sure you're right, there are people who would do PPV suicides if it were legal. (I've actually heard it suggested by the Left that executions should be televised, so people can see how horrible they are; I don't think they understand human nature, a lot of people would enjoy watching them.)
Hope this is an appropriate place to post this: http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/signs-of-steroid-use
Alter Ego --
Sure, it's relevant.
Ironically, though, I've noticed is that one of the surest signs of steroid use is if someone is on the cover of Men's Health magazine.
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