Dylan Mulvaney is a TikTok star and male who has just celebrated his one-year anniversary of parodying a woman. Mulvaney’s video diary chronicles “Days of Girlhood” will be marked with an anniversary cabaret show titled, “Dylan Mulvaney’s Day 365 Live!” at the Rainbow Room in New York.
It’d be one thing if Mulvaney were a drag performer. Drag involves appropriating femininity through stereotypes for the purposes of comedy. But when Mulvaney dresses up as a Barbie — he’s not joking. Rather, he’s claiming it to be an authentic expression of femaleness.
In one sense, it’s odd that Mulvaney would celebrate the beginning of his transition since it is an indirect acknowledgment that before he was a “girl,” he was (or at least appeared to be) something else. Most trans-identifying individuals are keen to avoid this inconvenient personal history.
“Going in, I had no idea just how vulnerable I would get and how much I had to learn about womanhood,” he told Variety. Really, though, dressing up in pink, wearing heels, and dancing around to Cindi Lauper have nothing to do with womanhood. Whereas being of the female sex does.
Someone had better tell that to Drew Barrymore, however, who during an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show got down on her knees when addressing Mulvaney. Kneeling before men dressed like Barbies. Is that what feminism has become?