Caitlyn Jenner, transgender celebrity extraordinaire, finds her comments scrutinized at every turn, and it’s almost always about her penchant for focusing on her appearance. The most recent incident involves Jenner commenting to TIME: “If you’re out there and, to be honest with you, if you look like a man in a dress, it makes people uncomfortable.” Cosmopolitan's Alex Rees proceeded to excoriate Jenner, as scores of trans people and their cisgender allies followed, which prompted Jenner to issue a public apology.



But Jenner’s is not the most egregious form of transphobia in this entire affair. Even more transphobic is Rees – a cisgender man – interpreting Jenner’s comments in the most ungenerous possible way; his was the mostly widely shared perspective to circulate throughout the soundbyte-driven Internet.

At this point, it’s widely acknowledged that Jenner — who has only publicly presented as a woman for less than a year — isn’t developing fast enough as a trans advocate. It’s even more important to note, however, that cisgender people are developing even more slowly as allies. Many progressive cis people have slammed Jenner for her appearance-consciousness even as the society they dominate creates conditions that force Jenner into that position. As Feministing’s Jos Truitt has noted in a series of tweets, cisgender allies are quick to criticize Jenner for her missteps, yet almost always fail to hold transphobic cisgender people to the same standard.

Jenner’s full quote puts her comments about non-passing trans people in context. “I think it’s much easier for a trans woman or a trans man who authentically kind of looks and plays the role. So what I call my presentation. I try to take that seriously. I think it puts people at ease.” Here Jenner makes her comment on not wanting to look like “a man in a dress,” clearly including herself. Then she concludes: “So the first thing I can do is try to present myself well. I want to dress well. I want to look good. When I go out, as Kim says, you’ve got to rock it because the paparazzi will be there.”