— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) November 17, 2015
Reality star and trans activist Caitlyn Jenner has gotten a lot of backlash after receiving the Glamour Woman of the Year award earlier in November 2015.
Actress Rose McGowan joined the fray with an angry, outraged Facebook post that she has since deleted, where she wrote “Caitlyn Jenner you do not understand what being a woman is about at all … Woman of the year? No, not until you wake up and join the fight.”
McGowan, who has recently made a more concentrated effort to speak publicly about feminism, criticized Jenner’s comments in a Buzzfeed interview that took place before the Glamour awards, where she said “The hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear.”
Outside of a speaking engagement, transgender activists protested Jenner’s choice and pressed her to acknowledge her privilege. Then, the husband of a 9/11 first responder returned his wife’s Woman of the Year award because he refuses to acknowledge Jenner as a “real” woman.
But McGowan deleted her profane rant and posted an updated message to her Twitter where she clarified her stance. “I am not, nor will I ever be transphobic,” McGowan says. “Being trans doesn’t make one immune from criticism.”
She goes on to explain that she was hoping to enlighten Jenner to break free of feminine standards of beauty, not to deny that because she is trans that she is unworthy of the Glamour honor.
And even though she didn’t soften her initial critique that much, McGowan did offer an olive branch. “Let’s go forwards, not backwards,” she writes, also saying “I would love to fight alongside Caitlyn Jenner.”