Dylan Mulvaney has sparked a backlash against WOKE advertising

Big brand threw money at Dylan Mulvaney… but at what price? From obscure actor to TikTok star praised by the White House, Nike trans poster girl has sparked a backlash against WOKE advertising

At one of America’s most distinguished universities for the performing arts, it is a long-standing tradition that graduate students stage a final show before they head off to seek fame and fortune.

Excitement was at fever pitch therefore, when the young actors and actresses in the musical theatre class at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati took to the stage at the end of term in 2019.

The theme of the showcase was titled ‘Not Famous Yet’ and Dylan James Mulvaney, as he was listed on the show’s credits — a nice-looking, smiley, lithe, 22-year-old young man — was one of the talented youngsters who charmed the audience with rousing song and dance routines from Broadway shows.

Fast forward a few short years and while most of the young performers that night are still seeking their places in the spotlight, Dylan Mulvaney — the middle name has been dropped — is today very famous indeed, although probably not for all the reasons expected.

After a stint as a relatively unknown stage actor, Mulvaney has been catapulted to stratospheric fame as a trans activist, documenting her gender transition in a viral video series called 365 Days Of Girlhood that has racked up nearly one billion views across TikTok and Instagram, where she has 10.8 million and 1.8 million followers respectively. She is thought to have earned more than £1 million so far.

Pictured: Dylan Mulvaney on the Red Carpet at MCC’s Miscast 2023, New York on April 3

While supporters say the 26-year-old should be celebrated for her bravery, critics believe Mulvaney’s representation of a woman is offensive

But with fame has come controversy.

While supporters say the 26-year-old should be celebrated for her bravery, critics believe Mulvaney’s representation of a woman is offensive and that it perpetuates damaging and humiliating stereotypes of the female sex.

Fuelling the furore are brands that have clamoured to work with her. They are trying to stay relevant — particularly with the Gen Z generation born in the late Nineties and early Noughties who they are desperate to reach — and have faced a backlash as a result.

After the Bud Light beer brand sent Mulvaney a customised can featuring her face — newly feminised following brutal, extensive surgery — as part of their March Madness campaign, some outraged longtime customers called for a boycott. She’d posted videos of herself posing with the lager while dressed as Audrey Hepburn and lying in a bubble bath. Sales dipped over the Easter weekend and parent company Anheuser-Busch saw $6 billion (£4.8 billion) wiped from its market value.

Days later, the sportswear giant Nike also found itself under fire after a completely flat-chested Mulvaney — who hasn’t had gender-affirming surgery so far — posted a ‘paid partnership’ video of herself wearing Nike leggings and a sports bra and performing a series of chorus-line high kicks and star-jumps, very badly.

Retired British Olympian swimmer Sharron Davies led the protests, calling it a ‘kick in the teeth’ to women and saying Mulvaney parading around in tight-fitting work-out gear ‘feels like a parody of what women are’. Feminist activist and writer Jean Hatchet was equally appalled: ‘It all looks ridiculous and slapstick,’ she wrote, saying how the ‘waggles and jiggles’ humiliate women, and ‘imply that weakness and silliness are inherent to being a woman who plays sport, women appropriately see this for the deliberately constructed misogyny it is’.

Mulvaney remained defiant, claiming critics ‘don’t understand her’. ‘The reason I think I’m an easy target is because I’m still new to this,’ she said.

‘I think going after a trans woman who has been doing this for 20 years is a lot more difficult.’

How Mulvaney is coping with the controversy, however, is unclear. As friends and family rally round, the subject is so toxic that few are willing to speak out. Her uncle Brian Mulvaney did, however, briefly appear above the parapet to stress how much the influencer’s family ‘loves her’.

‘She comes from a good family who love and support her,’ he said. ‘We always knew she was gay. She really loved her grandmother who completely supported her.’

After graduation got her first break, when she was cast as Elder White in the hit musical The Book Of Mormon, which toured the U.S., Canada and Mexico

Retired British Olympian swimmer Sharron Davies led the protests, calling it a ‘kick in the teeth’ to women

But who is this 26-year-old who finds herself in the eye of yet another trans hurricane?

Born in San Diego, California, in 1996, Mulvaney comes from a privileged background.

Her grandfather James Mulvaney Snr was a prominent investment banker, lawyer and former President of the San Diego Padres baseball team.

He also worked for the crooked financier and industrialist C. Arnholt Smith who was a close friend, and one of the earliest backers, of the disgraced president Richard Nixon in the Sixties. Another acquaintance was gangster Moe Dalitz, a casino owner in Las Vegas.

Mulvaney’s father, James Jnr, is a former surfer and San Diego philanthropist known for baking and handing out free cookies to locals.

Mulvaney says she first ‘came out’ to her Catholic mother when she was four: ‘I told her. “I’m a girl”. We were very, very religious so she was like “God doesn’t make mistakes”. But I didn’t know that I could transition. I didn’t know that there were options or resources.’ Her parents are no longer together but Mulvaney has said her family has ‘evolved and grown’ in their views about trans issues.

A self-described ‘theatre kid,’ Mulvaney loved performing. At the age of 12, she appeared in a performance of How The Grinch Stole Christmas at the Old Globe Theatre in her home town.

She won a place at the highly competitive Cincinnati Conservatory of Music — where there are 1,000 applicants for only 20 places in the musical theatre course — and after graduation got her first break, when she was cast as Elder White in the hit musical The Book Of Mormon, which toured the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Mulvaney remained defiant, claiming critics ‘don’t understand her’

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, leaving Mulvaney out of work like most actors, she said the enforced isolation gave her time to come to terms with her gender identity and she realised how unhappy she was at being cast in male roles.

‘I put so much of my own identity away just so I could have opportunities in my industry,’ she explained.

On March 12 last year she started her ‘365 Days Of Girlhood’ series of TikTok posts, in which she chronicled her transition.

She was irritating her critics — and racking up ‘likes’ — from day one, with a video in which she applied lip gloss, in apparent mockery of cliched tropes about overly emotional women.

She said: ‘I have already cried three times, I wrote a scathing email that I did not send. I ordered dresses online that I could not afford and then, when someone asked me how I was, I said “I’m fine” but I wasn’t fine. How’d I do ladies? Good? Girl Power.’ And as well as followers, she also started gathering some big- name supporters.

Last October, President Joe Biden invited Mulvaney to the White House to discuss trans issues in a ‘Presidential forum’.

‘Mr President, this is my 221st day of publicly transitioning,’ Mulvaney, who was dressed in the colors of the trans flag, told Biden. ‘God love you,’ Biden responded.

In January, after a social media hiatus, Mulvaney enthralled her millions of followers with the outcome of her ‘facial feminisation surgery’, which can cost up to £50,000.

With her familiar wide grin, Mulvaney listed all the procedures: ‘I had a hairline advancement, a brow bone shave, a rhinoplasty (nose job), minor cheek enhancement, a little lip lift, a jaw shave, a chin reduction and a tracheal shave.’ Particularly gruesome was a video showing Mulvaney’s surgeon removing staples and screws from her scalp.

Dylan Mulvaney attending her Day 365 Live! at The Rainbow Room on March 13, 2023

‘I had some of the most insane swelling I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I felt like I got stung by a thousand bees,’ she said.

She then marked her full recovery with a video showing her in a ballerina outfit, dancing to music from Swan Lake.

Last month, Mulvaney appeared on the Drew Barrymore show to mark her year of Being A Girl and the ET star knelt before her then embraced her. Vice president Kamala Harris sent her a letter congratulating Mulvaney on ‘365 days of living authentically’.

Mulvaney later celebrated then marked a full year of being out as a trans woman with an extravagant live-streamed 80-minute cabaret, of which she was the star, at the Rainbow Room in New York.

During the show, which raised funds for the LGBTQ charity The Trevor Project, Mulvaney’s family and friends cheered loudly and also booed when a tape was shown of the trans activist’s critics.

Dylan Mulvaney at the 65th GRAMMY Awards on February 5

Surprisingly, one person who isn’t a supporter, is America’s most famous trans woman, Caitlyn Jenner.

Mulvaney got into a social media spat with Jenner last October when she went on a shopping trip to a mall wearing shorts and complained on a blog that people were staring at her.

‘Oh, I forgot that my crotch doesn’t look like other women’s crotches sometimes, because mine doesn’t look like a little Barbie pocket,’ she said. ‘Normalise the bulge. We are normalizing the bulge,’ Mulvaney sang toward the end of the video.

Jenner, who had gender reassignment surgery in 2017, commented acidly: ‘I do not support that at all, in the slightest.’

When Mulvaney’s partnership with Nike was revealed this month, Jenner weighed in again on Instagram: ‘We can be inclusive but not at the expense of the mass majority of people, and have some decency while being inclusive. This is an outrage,’ she said.

‘The differences between men and women are real and a good thing! It doesn’t make trans people a bad thing either. Why is it so black and white with the radical rainbow mafia?’

Another trans icon, Laverne Cox, privately counselled Mulvaney not to be so revelatory when they met at the Grammys ceremony in February. ‘It’s insane that you’re documenting so much of your life,’ she said.

Perhaps taken aback by the reaction she has received from some quarters, Mulvaney has since said she is going to scale back her TikTok presence.

‘I think I’m ready to shift to whatever the next thing could be,’ she told the Hollywood trade magazine Variety, saying she would like to tackle the starring roles in the musicals Wicked and Cabaret.

Mulvaney now has a high-powered Hollywood team at her disposal to help her with her future plans including a team of five talent agents from the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and three publicists.

As well as acting, she has snagged other major brand deals with Kitchen Aid, Svedka vodka, Ulta Beauty and Kate Spade.

One of the team looking after her interests is Stephanie Paciullo, who specialises in digital media and advertising and whose clients have included Sarah Jessica Parker, Jerry Seinfeld, Dominic Cooper and Gordon Ramsay.

Whatever your stance, no one can deny that Mulvaney has achieved the fame and recognition she always dreamed of, as a confused little boy, dancing in his bedroom, but by a highly unusual and challenging route.

What she will do next, however, remains to be seen.

Other top-earning trans influencers

So why are so many big brands lining up to collaborate with trans models and influencers? The reason may be due to a ‘woke’ company scoring system.

In America, Fortune 500 companies are awarded a Corporate Equality Index rating, published annually by the Human Rights Campaign, the biggest LGBTQ lobby group in the U.S.

In the UK, Stonewall operates its own Workplace Equality Index, assessing companies on LGBTQ inclusivity.

Here are the trans influencers attracting big endorsements — and big money.

NIKKIE DE JAGER-DROSSAERS

38 million followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube

Dutch-born Nikkie transitioned as a teenager and started doing make-up tutorials on YouTube. She is a global beauty adviser to Marc Jacobs and deals with Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories and Maybelline. Nikkie, 29, has a make-up called Nimya, netting her a £4.7 million fortune.

Dutch-born Nikkie transitioned as a teenager and started doing make-up tutorials on YouTube

LAITH ASHLEY DE LA CRUZ, 400k followers across Instagram and TikTok

The Dominican-American model and actor, 33, has appeared in an underwear campaign for Calvin Klein and has also modelled for fashion brand Diesel and NY department store Barneys. 

Earlier this year he played Taylor Swift’s love interest in her music video for single Lavender Haze. His workout videos on TikTok are particularly popular.

The Dominican-American model and actor, 33, has appeared in an underwear campaign for Calvin Klein

MUNROE BERGDORF, 547,000 Instagram followers

Controversial British model and activist who was dropped as L’Oréal’s first transgender model after making racially charged comments. Munroe, 35, is a contributing editor to British Vogue and was on the cover last August.

She has modelled at Paris Fashion Week, been dressed by Stella McCartney and her biography Transitional came out earlier this year.

Controversial British model and activist who was dropped as L’Oréal’s first transgender model after making racially charged comments

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