Caitlyn Jenner’s acceptance of Glamour Magazine’s “Women of The Year” award has certainly demonstrated the presence of patriarchy in today's society. More than that though, has it demonstrated how uneducated the public is as to what it really means to identify as transgender.

From the moment her name was announced as the recipient of this award, women everywhere were almost instinctively outraged. In their minds, Caitlyn Jenner is just another classic example of male dominance, a blatant insult to hard-working, “real” women everywhere.

An article in The Federalist by Nicole Russell summed up this opinion: “By choosing Jenner as woman of the year, Glamour endorses the idea that men are better at being women than we are. Glamour is sending a clear message about a new kind of feminist-driven patriarch, who pushes women out of our spaces and expects submissiveness of their feminist enablers...Now women don’t even get to decide for us what marks the best and most impressive qualities of our own sex? That feels ideologically oppressive.”

As an educated, natural born woman, who proudly identifies as a feminist, I would agree with this argument...if it even began to explain the meaning and intentions behind this award. In fact, if there is anyone who understands the limitations of patriarchy and the frustrations of gender roles, it’s those who identify as transgender.

Yosef Kalfon, an Emerson student and member of this community, provided one’s definition of transgender: “To me, transgender is any gender identity that transgresses the gender binary of male and female. A lot of people consider transgender as being a third gender identity, as a kind of triangle that contradicts the binary we are used to. That is not what it is. Transgender is the idea and embodiment that breaks this myth of male and female being the only genders to ascribe to. It gives you the power to create a gender possibility that is all your own. It creates a spectrum.”

Yosef’s identification emerged when he started educating himself as to what it truly means to be transgender, a journey that began in a classroom at Emerson with a discussion on intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that our identities are shaped by an intersection of various axes - gender, sexuality, class, race, education, geographic location - that determine how we are identified in society. “The class taught me to not 'essentialize' the experience of anyone or assume any particular aspect of someone's identity,” one said.

Unfortunately for this community, societal assumptions are a harsh reality. Here are some comments that were posted in response to an article on Jenner’s award:

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These comments, among many others, overwhelmingly display how society mitigates this group, de-masking the facade of acceptance held up by the media. Yosef spoke to this societal tendency when one said, “In terms of the general public, it's difficult. Going out on the street with falsies, fake nails, heels, and a skirt always causes a sort of disturbance, like I am a glitch in the matrix, or so it feels sometimes.”

While Yosef has better nails than any girl I’ve seen, one also maintains a full beard - a feature that often shades his gender identity to the general public. “Having your identity assumed for you on the street comes with certain privileges: I’m white passing, male passing, and middle class. I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t comes with certain privileges,” one explained.

Similarly, in accepting this award, Caitlyn Jenner has faced a lot of criticism on the grounds that being male for the majority of her life allowed her to reap the benefits associated with this demographic, therefore making her an undeserving recipient. Russell elaborated on this point when she said, “To laud a man for living as a woman is to insult and patronize women who have borne and overcome incredible odds and achieved great successes because of their uniquely womanly traits.”

Yet in this explanation, these feminists have derailed the very foundation of their ideology. In alienating Caitlyn Jenner as not a “real” woman, these women are perpetuating the obsession with gender and its respective roles in society, holding up the very pillars of the patriarchy that have deemed woman to be “less than” for centuries. To say that these women have succeeded because of their traits that are “uniquely woman” is only further enforcing the strict segregation of the binary and subsequently moving away from the ideal of equality that feminism strives towards - that everyone deserves.

Yosef explained that in reality, very few people explicitly align with the societal conception of their gender (and we shouldn’t have to). This realization is essential to the deconstruction of gender stereotypes that hinder both men and women in more ways than we realize. “By this, I'm not saying that everyone is trans but what I am saying is, in this society, it’s frightening for some people to see someone be so liberal in their expression of gender. Not conforming to the binary threatens the patriarchal society we are so engrossed in, it unravels the power structure,” one said.

Ironically, the only people who are liberated from this structure, something we have been allegedly striving for, for decades, are now the same people being threatened to oppress their expression of gender.

The worst part: these threats are effective.

A study done by The Williams Institute in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which analyzed the responses of nearly 6,500 self-identified transgender people, revealed that 46% of trans men, 42% of trans women, and 44% of female-assigned cross-dressers have attempted suicide at some point in their lives. Even more have been bullied, abused, and even murdered by a public that is not accepting of them.

Caitlyn Jenner won this award for these victims, who needed someone to speak on their behalf in the public eye. Publicity stunt or not, she is raising awareness for the transgender community and at the very least, has got people talking. That's what's important.

Until the public shows that they are truly listening, Caitlyn Jenner will continue to win awards that she "does not deserve." Though perhaps she is not "the ideal hero" for this community, she is a hero nevertheless, a truly admirable "Woman of The Year."

Yosef said, "For people to really understand what it means to be trans, you have to listen to their stories and give them a platform to speak. If you listen close enough, the misconceptions will unravel themselves."