Reading Time: 3 minutes
Dylan Mulvaney is once again on the receiving end of bigotry for the most innocuous thing.
This time, for celebrating a holiday. A happy (belated) International Women’s Day!
On Saturday, Dylan took to social media to celebrate the occasion — which holds an extra special meaning for her.
Unfortunately, she continues to be a target for hate. And this was no exception.
Dylan Mulvaney celebrated International Women’s Day — did you?
Saturday, March 8 was International Women’s Day. It was a bittersweet occasion, given the grim realities of our world.
In the United States, women living now have lost or are in danger of losing basic rights that their grandmothers had decades ago.
However, sometimes a crisis is the most important time to find joy. International Women’s Day is a time to fight, but it is also a time to celebrate womanhood. And Dylan Mulvaney was sure to do just that.
Taking to her Instagram page, Dylan Mulvaney shared glimpses at her book tour. Her book is Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer.
“Happy International Women’s Day,” she began her caption. “One of the best days of my life.”
Dylan continued: “I loved meeting you all and can’t wait to see more of you on the book tour.”
Unfortunately, the usual bigots targeted Dylan Mulvaney
Dylan Mulvaney then concluded her post, writing: “I am so thankful for the women that surround me and especially Drew Afualo.”
However, the 28-year-old social media personality has been a frequent target for outrageous bigotry. In 2023, she was the epicenter of a targeted transphobic campaign to “punish” advertisers for working with transgender influencers — or even for selling products to trans customers.
As a result, unfortunately, her International Women’s Day post also received some vile backlash.
The backlash at Dylan Mulvaney’s International Women’s Day post was not for anything that she said. Rather, it was for her existing in the first place.
Many of the comments on social media were so brazenly transphobic (using slurs, misgendering her, and more) that they are unfit to print. It is a sign of how much a few evil men have tilted the scales on social media that this once niche bigotry runs rampant on what were once normal social media sites.
“This feels like cultural appropriation,” one deeply weird person tweeted, according to The Daily Mail. Another attempted to craft a rancid joke, writing: “This isn’t what they meant when they said men should support women.”
What is this kind of backlash really about?
Ultimately, a lot of transphobia’s focus seems to be about gatekeeping womanhood. While this inevitably harms trans men, nonbinary folks, cisgender women, and even some cis men, the focus of these attacks is on trans women.
To put it simply, women and the transgender community both receive hate. Trans women then receive the worst of both worlds. And Dylan Mulvaney, perhaps because she was brave enough to document her transition on social media, has received an avalanche of hatred for being who she is.
Bigotry will not vanish overnight. But we hope that the transphobic beasts who bombard people like Dylan Mulvaney with hatred will soon once again face too much shame to speak up. Or, at the very least, that social media will employ more responsible moderation.