Trans Actress Dylan Mulvaney Responds to Caitlyn Jenner Calling Her an ‘Absurdity’

Mulvaney—who became a TikTok sensation during the pandemic with her "Days of Girlhood" videos—urged her followers to be kind to Jenner.

Celebrities
Trans Actress Dylan Mulvaney Responds to Caitlyn Jenner Calling Her an ‘Absurdity’
Photo:Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Prime Video, Araya Doheny/Getty Images for Cincoro Tequila (Getty Images)

Actress and TikTok darling Dylan Mulvaney became an early pandemic darling when she started posting her “Days of Girlhood” series chronicling her transition. Now on day 233 of being a girl, Mulvaney is dealing with an unrelenting stream of transphobic trolls and harassment, which has increased since Caitlyn Jenner called Mulvaney “an absurdity.”

The latest round of vitriol started after Mulvaney participated in a discussion on trans issues with President Joe Biden, which NowThis published over the weekend. Along with the new footage, a nearly year-old video of her made the rounds of traditional rightwing trolls, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, before Jenner, a fellow trans person, decided to pile on.

Jenner praised Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) for sharing one of the videos, writing, “Let’s not ‘normalize’ any of what this person is doing. This is absurdity!” Her subsequent tweet misgendered Mulvaney.

In a subsequent tweet, Jenner twisted the knife: “There is a difference between acceptance and tolerance, and normalizing exposing your genitals in a public way and a public place. I do not support that at all, in the slightest. Dylan…congrats your [sic] trans with a penis.”

Mulvaney responded in a video posted to Instagram and TikTok, saying she’s not particularly interested in engaging with Jenner anymore. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have interest in getting to know you, because the way you use your platform to publicly degrade me? It told me everything I need to know about you. A trans person invalidating another trans person’s trans-ness is pretty evil in my eyes,” she said.

Mulvaney’s most cutting comments came at the end of the video. “You’ve been accepted by a group of people that clearly does not accept me, and nearly every day this week I’ve been called a freak, a child predator, an absurdity. I’m none of those things that your cohorts are painting me to be. And my question for you is: Don’t you feel a little lonely over there?” she said.

“These people you’re standing with,” she continued,” I don’t know if they have your best intentions at heart. But they will use you to make me and the trans community[’s] life, like, a lot harder than it already is.”

Jenner is choosing to ally with the likes of Blackburn and Greene, both of whom regularly spew reactionary hate against trans people. These transphobes do not give two shits about Jenner’s wellbeing: If she wasn’t rich, and if the Jenner name didn’t still have some cache, and if she wasn’t conveniently parroting Republican talking points, she would just be another person to degrade.

 
Join the discussion...