The outrage over Nike, US beer Bud Light’s collab with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney

Last Friday, Dylan Mulvaney put out a post about “feeling very visible in the past year”. It was Trans Day of Visibility and the celebrity influencer and trans rights activist was grateful for the opportunities she had received. “We need to exist in every space. I want trans people doing ALLLL the brand deals,” she wrote.

Ironically, one week on, Mulvaney has been receiving hate for endorsing two brands – America’s top-selling beer Bud Light’s March Madness and Nike.

Who is Dylan Mulvaney?

Twenty-six-year-old Dylan Mulvaney is a trans actress, comic and content creator with millions of followers on TikTok (10.8 million) and Instagram (1.7 million).

Mulvaney grew up in San Diego as a theatre kid and then she attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music for musical theatre. In a gendered industry, she was only cast in male roles. She acted in “The Book of Morom”, a theatrical production by the makers of the TV show “South Park”. This involved a lot of travel across the US; it took her to Mexico and Canada.

That is when the pandemic struck and during the lockdown, she began exploring her identity and posting TikTok videos. “That [during the pandemic] was the first moment since I was a child that I really got to ask myself like Dylan, like, ‘Who are you without acting and without playing a boy part?’” she told Los Angeles Magazine.

Her popularity grew as she began to document her transitioning journey into “girlhood” on TikTok, where she found a voice. Last year, she was on the list of TikTok’s 2022 LGBTQ+ “Trailblazers:”

Why has Mulvaney hit headlines now?

It all started with a post on April 1. Mulvaney partnered with Bud Light and shared a post on her Instagram account promoting its March Madness contest.

Dressed as the “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” character Holly Golightly, she joked about confusing the meaning of the term “March Madness”. “… It turns out it has something to do with sport,” she says.

The actress said that she was celebrating her “365 days of womanhood”, marking a year since her transition and Bud Light gifted her a customised beer can with her face on it.

The post did not go down well with viewers and Mulvaney was criticised with many making transphobic remarks. Over the past few days, several videos have surfaced online with people throwing Bud Light cans in bins, destroying them, and downing the beer in sinks.

Bud Light is owned by the world’s largest beer brewer, Annheuser-Busch, and there were calls to boycott it.

Several right-wing figures in the media, including those on Fox News, made insulting remarks about Mulvaney. One of the most viral responses came from singer Kid Rock who put up a video where he appeared to be shooting Bud Light cans with a semi-automatic rifle and shouting “F*** Bud Light and f*** Anheuser-Busch”, wearing a MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat.

Country music star Travis Tritt announced a boycott of all products by Anheuser-Busch. “I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider. I know many other artists who are doing the same,” the 60-year-old singer-songwriter said on Twitter late Wednesday.

But this was not the only endorsement that created a controversy. Mulvaney has also been attacked for promoting a Nike sports bra.

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What’s the Nike row all about?

After her TikTok series, Mulvaney bagged a sponsorship from Nike. Earlier this week, she put a picture in a Nike sports bra, tagging Nike Women, the Instagram handle that promotes products for women. “Alert the media — I’m entering my workout era,” Mulvaney wrote as he modelled in the bra and pants.

The brand’s decision to partner with a trans woman to promote women’s products has angered conservative political commentators, celebrities and sportswomen.

Even Caitlyn Jenner, arguably the most famous transgender celebrity, has branded Nike as being “woke”. Jenner, who was recently named a Fox News contributor, called the brand partnership “an outrage.”

“As someone that grew up in awe of what [Nike co-founder] Phil Knight did, it is a shame to see such an iconic American company go so woke!” she tweeted. “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 further wrote, “STOP TRYING TO ERASE WOMEN”.

British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies is leading a boycott of Nike. She said the move was a “step” back after several sports bodies moved to give biological women their own protected category in competitions, reports Daily Mail.

“The ad feels like a parody of what women are. In the past, it was always seen as an insult to say, ‘run like a girl’ and here we've got someone behaving in a way that's very un-sporty and very unathletic and it's so frustrating when only 1 per cent of USA sponsorship dollar goes to females in sport. That Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth,” she told GB News.

Maureen Callahan, the editor of New York Post known for her opinions on feminism, wrote in DailyMail.com that Nike’s decision to hire a trans influencer to advertise sports bras for women was an “insult to biological women everywhere — and especially biological female athletes, who are fighting for their own hard-won space at elite and professional levels”.

“Biological females are being erased from the culture with alacrity,” she opined but also added that “everyone should have the right to identify and live however they choose”.

What do Annheuser-Busch and Nike have to say?

Anheuser-Busch has defended its partnership with Mulvaney. Michael Goon, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement that the firm “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.”

There has been no statement from Nike yet.

Also read: Troubled Nights: Do transgender youth have trouble sleeping?

Has Mulvaney responded?

Mulvaney has so far not commented on the controversies.

Ari Drennen, the LGBTQ programme director for the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, said that the reaction to the endorsements was part of “a coordinated effort by right-wing figures to attack successful and visible trans figures like Mulvaney”, reports The Washington Post. “It’s all a concentrated effort to prevent trans people from gaining a foothold in popular culture.”

With inputs from agencies

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