As you lie on your bed scrolling through TikTok one lazy Saturday afternoon, you come across a warm and familiar face on your For You Page. Greeting you with a kind, gentle smile, the woman tells you in great detail of another day in her gender transition journey, and you listen with rapt attention, as she flashes another bright smile at you. As your eyes glance at the shining profile picture and username below, you realize the woman you are looking at is Dylan Mulvaney.
Mulvaney, a highly influential transgender (male to female) TikTok star, has been creating daily videos detailing her gender transition since early 2022, gaining immense popularity online.
“I first saw Dylan a little over a year ago when she started posting her “Days of Girlhood” videos,” sophomore Lia Baldini said. “I was really proud and supportive of her transition, and I have never had a problem with her.”
Since the start of her online career, Mulvaney has steadily been creating a reputation for herself despite the transphobia and bullying she faces nearly every day. She has not only made appearances on The Drew Barrymore Show and the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, but also met with President Biden in 2022 to discuss a recent legislation restricting gender-affirming care.
On March 11 of this year, Mulvaney released her music video “Days of Girlhood”, declaring that all the proceeds she receives from the video will be donated to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention.
In the video, Mulvaney sings of the “basics” of being a woman, and almost immediately received backlash and transphobic attacks in response. Many critics observed that the song- which featured bubble baths, one-night stands, and prescription pills- paints women in a negative light, making them out to be nothing more than whores and drug addicts.
“The internet can be very mean sometimes,” freshman Lizzie Rutkowski said. “People put too much time and energy into someone else’s life.”
Others, more specifically right-wing commentators, have taken a more harmful approach to the matter, firing transphobic attacks at Mulvaney. However, Mulvaney is quite used to the negativity.
In March 2023, Mulvaney partnered with Bud Light, the nation’s top-selling beer, and released a video in which she cracked open a can of the drink in celebration of her transition and March Madness.
In an immediate response, countless videos were posted by those in protest of the partnership, showing consumers dumping Bud Light down sinks and in dumpsters, some even going as far as destroying cans of the beer with rifles. As a result of the boycott against the company, Bud Light suffered nearly a $20 billion loss.
Mulvaney, although facing ridicule in public and immense loneliness, kept her head held high, taking a short break from social media. Now, she has stepped back into the limelight with a catchy song and a newfound sense of pride.
Although it may seem like nearly everyone hates Mulvaney’s new song, this is hardly the case. Thousands of her fans rushed to her support, defending Mulvaney and pointing out the fact that if people are to criticize her song and its apparent “sexism”; they should show the same critiques to other popular songs that paint women in a negative light, such as “California Gurls” by Katy Perry or “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper, both of which are immensely popular and loved.
Moreover, it appears the only people who seem to have a genuine problem with Mulvaney’s song are right-wing political activists and chronic internet dwellers who have nothing better to do with their time.
“All of the hate seems really stupid because she is just trying to be herself and get out in the world,” Baldini said. “She is just trying to show her journey to support others.”
Truly, the world is a very large place with many issues. But if people genuinely decide to focus so much time and energy into a woman they hardly know over a song they are not fans of, then they must lead pretty sad lives.
“I have never really had a problem with Dylan,” sophomore Aleigha Nielsen said. “It seems pointless to feel so much hatred towards someone online you do not even know.”
There are better things to focus on in life and so much positivity to be spread. Wasting all that time on something so insignificant as a controversial song is absolutely ridiculous. It takes a lot less energy and does a lot more good to spread positivity and love, rather than hate and criticism.
