TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney has few fans of the political right. This week, everyone from Kid Rock to Caitlyn Jenner and country singer Travis Tritt made a fuss about her endorsement deals with Nike and Bud Light.
It’s no surprise that those three celebs are going on a rampage against corporate wake ups. What is notable about Mulvaney is how she not only irritates conservatives, but also harasses many members of her own transgender community.
The trans forums on Reddit.com are abuzz with chatter about the 28-year-old, often focusing on whether she’s really trans, whether she’s a money-making scammer, and whether she’s a good face for the movement.
The comments, posted under anonymous usernames, vary. To some, Mulvaney is just not my cup of tea. To others, she’s a “little cringe,” “annoying,” “privileged,” and even “obnoxious.”
“Nobody I know can put up with her,” one user posted on the “ask transgenderthread, a forum of some 264,000 members — representing one-sixth of the estimated 1.6 million trans Americans.
Mulvaney makes it clear in her TikTok skits that she is a true trans person, using female hormones to ease her unusual transition from male to girl.
Mulvaney currently has 10.8 million TikTok followers – which is impressive, but still not in the top 10 on the platform
“Dorky, campy theater kid,” another posted, referring to Mulvaney’s background as a performer. One user, even more agitated, wrote that “her vibes are insanely unpleasant.”
“I blocked her and found her content cringing,” said another user, who compared Mulvaney’s skits to the television comedy Schitt’s Creek, which brought innocent gay characters into millions of homes.
Mulvaney’s hit series, Days of Girlhood, was “LGBT content for straight people,” they added.
Mulvaney, of course, also has millions of adoring fans. One commenter called her a “nice and genuine person,” albeit one whose energetic, high-pitched clips drain viewers’ energy.
“Maybe she could drink less coffee,” they added.
Like Mulvaney’s conservative celebrity critics, the trans bloggers also focused on the money she makes promoting sports brands, credit cards, clothing and cosmetics to her 10.8 million TikTok followers.
Industry insiders say Mulvaney earns a whopping $75,000 every time she pushes a product, bringing in more than $1 million a year. Her Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency did not respond to our requests for comment.
This puts her in a different league from mainstream trans Americans, who often struggle to afford the sex reassignment hormones and surgeries that Mulvaney had access to at the start of her wayward transition from male to girl.
“She’s had a lot of privilege going through the transition,” posted one user, noting that Mulvaney went through tens of thousands of dollars in December with her facial feminization surgery, which took less than a year into her gender journey.
“She seems very privileged though…and paints a picture of being trans, which is very ‘easy,'” another posted.
“This makes it easy for cis people to enjoy her content, but can come across as a bit out-of-touch at times.”
This leads to the burning question at the heart of the debates about Mulvaney: whether she really is a trans person.
Assil Dayri, a social media expert and founder of AMD Consulting Group, said Mulvaney was turning into a “public figure rather than a content creator.”
The comments, posted under anonymous usernames, vary. To some, Mulvaney is just not my cup of tea. To others, she’s a “little cringe,” “annoying,” “privileged,” and even “obnoxious”
Orange Is the New Black’s trans star Laverne Cox appeared in one of Mulvaney’s TikTok skits — an awkward appearance where she advises the TikToker that “not everything can be for the public”
Although Mulvaney, a biological male, wears girly outfits, uses female hormones, and underwent painful cosmetic surgery on her face, many compare her more to a drag queen, a pantomime artist, or even a con artist.
Chloe Cole, a prominent de-transitioner, stated that Mulvaney was not a “real trans kid.” Laverne Cox, the trans woman star of Orange Is the New Black, recently told Mulvaney that she was “insane” for exposing so much of her life on camera.
On the forums, users are wondering if she’s authentic or engaged in “some kind of act or joke,” one member posted. Others wonder if she’s a “troll,” who wants to “own” liberals and conservatives alike.
Still, most of the members confirm Mulvaney’s female identity. The trans movement is based on the principle that people decide their own gender identity, and anyone who questions that is rude.
“Whether I like her or not, if she says she’s trans, she’s trans,” one user wrote.
Another said it “feels odd that this question is being asked so often.”
Mulvaney, who was left unemployed when the musical she starred in, The Book of Mormon, closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. She launched her TikTok series last year to document her transition from man to “girl.”
It was always controversial, but it turned out to be a surprise hit. It earned Mulvaney promotional appearances with dozens of brands, millions of followers, famous friends, and even a performance with President Joe Biden at the White House last year.
Mulvaney recently sparked controversy again, after Bud Light, a popular but watery beer, sent the TikToker a caseload to celebrate the first anniversary of her transition from man to girl
Visibly offended by the beer company’s ties to the trans TikToker, Kid Rock, a conservative singer-songwriter, posted a video of him firing a gun at crates of the low-calorie drink
She has many detractors, from conservatives, who worry she’s foisting radical gender ideology on impressionable young TikTok viewers, to old-fashioned feminists, who resent her strident approach to femininity.
In recent days, Kid Rock, a conservative singer-songwriter, posted a video of him firing into crates of Bud Light after Mulvaney promoted the beer. Jenner, a former athlete, has criticized Nike for a similar “awake” sponsorship deal with the TikToker.
Reddit’s transgender forums also addressed the anti-Mulvaney backlash.
A user on the forum, who calls herself a “cis woman,” slammed Mulvaney for the “incredibly sexist views she has on femininity.”
Another wondered why the people on the right were so irked by her antics.
“The conservative moral panic and affectation about its existence is super bizarre,” they posted.
“Some cis people go crazy over her for no reason.”
DailyMail.com was unable to verify the identities, gender or otherwise, of those posting to Reddit.com, though the comments still show the variety of opinions about Mulvaney on a trans-friendly platform.
Mulvaney’s latest endorsement to anger conservatives is with the sportswear brand Nike. Critics say her endorsement deal should have gone to an athlete, and one born female
Mulvaney holds up footage of her quirky transition from man to girl at her one-year anniversary party at New York City’s Rainbow Room this month
“I felt like I had been stung by 1,000 bees.” One of Mulvaney’s rawest moments of the past year was her “feminizing facial surgery” in December, which left her with “insane swelling.”