Jon Stewart’s shrewdness as a crowd pleaser has never been more evident than in his treatment of Caitlyn Jenner. Earlier this week, when Bruce Jenner’s sexual transformation made the cover of Vanity Fair, Stewart strung together a series of television commentaries about Jenner’s appearance. Most, in Stewart’s selection, made the point that Jenner looked especially fetching, or was sexier than somebody else, or took the trouble to describe Jenner’s tight-fitting corset, ample cleavage, and come-hither facial expression. This, Stewart declared to his audience, was evidence that Jenner was now truly a woman in America: In the past, he explained, the media might have talked about Bruce’s athletic prowess or business acumen; now all they wanted to discuss were Caitlyn’s looks and desirability.

As is almost invariably the case with Jon Stewart, the observation is, at best, half-true. There is no question that, on balance, women in the news tend to have their appearance described (and judged) more often than men – and that this is truly unfair when applied to people such as Carly Fiorina or Hillary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice, whose appearance is irrelevant to their public significance. But does this apply to Caitlyn Jenner? The only point worth knowing about Caitlyn Jenner is that she used to be a man and now considers herself a woman. And in presenting her new 65-year-old female self to the world, she chose to pose for the cover of Vanity Fair in the aforementioned tight-fitting corset, with ample cleavage and that come-hither expression. Any press speculation about Caitlyn Jenner’s looks or sexiness, it seems to me, was prompted by Caitlyn Jenner herself.