TikTok’s foremost gender-creative influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, released his debut pop single this month at the expense of women everywhere.
Written to celebrate his second year of self-identifying as a girl, Mulvaney — a 27-year-old man — described the song as an ode to the joy he felt when he started documenting his efforts to look and sound like a girl.
“I’m not trying to make a substantial music career,” Mulvaney prevaricated in a video posted to TikTok. “This was a fun project to celebrate the early days of my transition and the joy I found [then].” He further emphasizes,
Mulvaney describes this joyful exploration of his perceived femininity with lyrics like this:
Monday, can’t get out of bed;
Tuesday morning, pick up meds;
Wednesday, retail therapy
“Cash or credit?” I say, “Yes”;
Thursday, had a walk of shame
Didn’t even know his name;
Weekends are for kissing friends;
Friday night, I’ll overspend.
Goodness. How is it that I’ve been a girl for 23 years and no one told me I should be promiscuous, drugged-up and bad with money? I guess I missed the memo.
In all seriousness, I wasn’t planning on writing about Mulvaney’s magnum opus because I don’t like to drive traffic to his exploitative (and insulting) content. And, as conservative commentator Amala Ekpunobi points out, Mulvaney has always commodified caricatures of women — though perhaps not to this extent.
Upon reflection, however, I think Mulvaney benefits more from women’s silence than their outrage. Though his theatrics may seem trivial, his influence and ideology erode the dignity and value of womanhood. His behavior, then, cannot go unexamined.
Dylan Mulvaney is a canary in a cultural coalmine. Instead of inspiring concern or disbelief, his uniquely infantilized interpretation of womanhood propelled him to national fame and fortune.
He makes millions of dollars every year off social media and brand deals with makeup and clothing companies. Last year alone, he got a private audience with the President of the United States, won the award for Breakout Creator at the Streamy awards (the “Oscars of the Internet”), featured in Forbes’ list of Top Creators, and won Attitude magazine’s “Woman of the Year” award.
Our society’s willingness to accept and elevate Mulvaney’s behavior illustrates how deeply identity politics and narratives of oppression have seeped into Western culture.
Case in point: When reporting on Mulvaney’s Woman of the Year acceptance speech, USA today wrote,
In other words, our nation’s misguided effort to be kind and inclusive has led a man who peddles tired stereotypes of women for money to feel oppressed by people who believe in the immutability of sex.
Yikes.
What’s more, Mulvaney presents an undeniable incentive for the disenfranchised and ambitious to accept or exacerbate their own mental health problems. His story suggests gender confusion not only grants people unconditional acceptance and community, but wealth and a career hobnobbing with the rich and famous.
Though his success largely reflects our cultural moment, rather than his own actions, Mulvaney is far from a passive pawn. The longer he presents and upholds his persona as a valid representation of womanhood, the more young women will mimic his behavior and the more young men will view his misogyny as acceptable.
Dylan Mulvaney is not experiencing girlhood because he is a man in his twenties. He should not, under any circumstance, be glorified as a model woman. Nor should he be rewarded for creating an insulting song insinuating women should behave themselves as anything less than infinitely valuable children of God.
Additional Articles and Resources
Focus on the Family Resources for those struggling with Transgenderism
WATCH: Parenting Through Gender Confusion, Public Schools
Transgenderism is Getting Increasingly Deceptive and Cultish
Girls and the Transgender “Hockey Stick”
Rosaria Butterfield: ‘My Use of Transgendered Pronouns Was Not a Mistake; It Was Sin.’
Fox News Deliberately Misgenders Dylan Mulvaney. Here’s Why They Deserve Pushback.
