Caitlyn Jenner had seemingly mocked gay designer on KUWTK when she was still Bruce: 'You know, I am uncomfortable'
Caitlyn Jenner celebrated the fifth anniversary of her transformation into a transwoman from a former male Olympic gold medalist by reflecting back on her life and acknowledging that she had made mistakes in her past and grown as a person in her journey to find her true identity.
Caitlyn told People Magazine that she felt like she was always over-compensating in her life due to her struggle with her birth gender. As Bruce Jenner — her former male identity — she earned a gold medal at the men's decathlon event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and was subsequently branded as "an all-American hero". After appearing on the hit reality show 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' which has had 18 seasons so far — making it one of the most-watched and longest-running shows in the history of television — alongside her former wife Kris Jenner and 10 children, Bruce became a household name.
However, the show did not initially portray then-Bruce in a very favorable light, especially among people of the LGBTQ community, where Caitlyn is currently considered an icon. In one particular episode from Season 2 of the show titled, 'Khloe Wants To Act', Bruce appeared to have quite a few questionable comments about gay celebrity fashion designer Eric Archibald, who was brought in by Kris to give him a style makeover.
Kris herself was in doubt as to how comfortable her then-husband might feel with Eric dressing him. "I don't know how comfortable Bruce is gonna be, having anybody dress him. Then on top of that, having this fabulous gay guy dress him," she confessed.
Sure enough, after cringing all the while the guy was taking his measurements, Bruce pulled Kris aside to tell her that he did want Eric to dress him because he did not want to look too "fluffy." "Eric seems like a nice enough guy but I don't think we will be playing golf together," Bruce said during confessions.
While he and Eric were supposed to go shopping, he took a deliberate detour to a golf practicing arena and left Eric in the car for 15 minutes as he went inside to take some swings. When Eric confronted him, he made the unwilling designer take a swing. "Isn't that cute?" Eric said after posing with the gold club, to which an unimpressed Bruce said, "We're not looking for cute."
When the duo did manage to reach a clothing store, Bruce's disparaging comments continued. "You know I am uncomfortable. I don't want him to dress me like, you know, like he might dress, put it that way," he confessed before making snide comments on the clothes and accessories that Eric picked out for him to try. "A male purse? That's more you" he said to a unisex bag, and to another garment, he exclaimed, "You would wear that! Come on, you can't see me in that!"
After Eric picked out a few choices for Bruce to try, the latter went to the trial room, and before drawing the curtain, warned the designer, "No peeking" to which the puzzled designer said, "Why would I peek?" However, Bruce's skepticism faded when he discovered that he actually liked Eric's styling. "I realized, you know what? I really didn't have anything to worry about. Eric seems to know what he is doing."
Eric then took Bruce to a gay bar, and the latter felt very uncomfortable. "In all the experiences that I've been through in my life, I've never been in a gay bar," he confessed. However, when one of the waiters comes over to their table and recognizes Bruce from a movie he did years back, he considerably relaxes. "Eric was a great guy. He's worked very hard," declared Bruce in the end.
It is also important to mention that the episode aired in 2008 and Bruce came out as Caitlyn in 2015 at the age of 65 by appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair with the tagline 'Call Me Caitlyn.' “I’ve changed my thinking in a lot of ways. I love my community. I truly want to help. This is my journey. Yes, it is different from other trans people. I get it,” she said. “But the bottom line is this: When I wake up in the morning, I’m happy with myself," she said in the recent interview with People.