Spiked’s O’Neill on Dylan Mulvaney’s Creepy Sexism

[RethinkingLife]

Read it because the whole is well-written and quotable.

This is all from Mulvaney’s new book, Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer. It is – and I choose my words advisedly – batshit insane. It traces his ‘gender journey’ from being a gay boy to being nonbinary before he eventually arrives at ‘girlhood’. And then the holy land: womanhood. He’s definitely a woman now because he is ‘blonde and my tits [don’t] need a magnifying glass to be seen’. Plus, he loves pink. At one point he pulls on ‘the pinkest… outfit I own’, thinking that ‘the more feminine’ he appeared, the less likely it is he’ll be ‘misgendered’. Blonde hair, big boobs and a pink dress? Woman!
…

Some people will bristle at my use of male pronouns for Mulvaney, but if you think I’m saying ‘she’ and ‘her’ about someone who’s so obsessed with his own schlong that he has a name for it – ‘Missy’ – then you must be off your rocker. ‘I am a woman with a penis’, he writes. Can we take a second to marvel at the sheer delirium of a statement like that? A hundred years ago if you said ‘I’m a woman with a penis’, you’d have been quietly shuffled off to Bedlam. Now you get an advance from Hachette and a birthday card from the vice-president of the United States.

www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/13/dylan-mulvaneys-creepy-fantasies-of-girlhood/

I think the creepiness is that this isn't just the usual case of a man trying act "femaleness" based on sexist stereotypes. It's that Dylan's persona is all about "girlhood", and the stereotypes he's drawing on seem to be based on the annoying lead character in a Disney tween sitcom.

It's a bit like Elliot Page adopting an unconvincing persona of a pre-teen boy, except that Page comes across as desperately sad rather than creepy.

I can’t stand this man, but even more I can’t stand Rory Stewart calling him a ‘she’ as if it was all normal.

I find that life is much easier to navigate if you assume that everything Rory Stewart believes is a lie.

His mum was probably a terf even before her offspring went -sproing, but now she certainly can't help it!

I hated that so much.

Do you remember that Nike campaign that had the strapline 'run like a girl's with girls running really fast.

Disgusting misogyny.

You’re right, it was disgustingly misogynistic. And the infuriating reaction of the mainstream media (and the liberal gentry) was to reprimand any women who objected to his misogynistic behaviour.

We were told we had to “be kind” and refrain from objecting to his outrageous portrayal of sexist stereotypes.

Why does the culturally dominant element of western society approve of his sexist antics rather than supporting women trying to fight these sexist stereotypes?!

I have a really visceral reaction to that - men affecting the speech patterns and mannerisms of girls. When they mimic grown women they just look exaggerated and unconvincing, but when they mimic young girls it's actually nauseating.

Apparently despite a massive publicity tour, plugs in, amongst others, Rolling Stone and Spiked , endorsements on the cover by Kristin Chernowith (one so anodyne I'm pretty sure she hasn't read it) and Munro Bergdorf and all those millions of followers on TikTok someone reckons the book may have sold about 300 copies on amazon.

If you wish to read the Rolling Stone article, the photographer, or the person who picked the shots to illustrate it really did a number on Dylan in the 2nd picture. The shoulders, the massive feet and hands, Dylan really looked like what Dylan is...in a 👗

He, as an individual, doesn't bother me at all. I think he's part of the vaudeville tradition of panto dames like Dick Emery, Danny La Rue, etc. Just fancy, more respectable, drag queens. But I think he can't believe his luck in the way he's treated and feted and he's cashing in on it as fast and furious as he's able because it's all just dress up. He tried for years to be famous and jumped on trans when it turned up.

But I despise those who fete him and treat him seriously. Whoopi Goldberg pretending to have a serious conversation about women's sport with him, while he tried to joke his way out of it and not actually comment. Drew Barrymore on her knees and Biden being stupid enough to endorse him. I save my contempt for those idiotic people using him to virtue signal and destroy women's rights in the process.

Ha. I was thinking it was giving ‘centaur’

I find him marginally less creepy than his pal, Jeffrey Marsh, who has the fixed, dead behind the eyes look of a snake.

Where was it that did that analysis of his sudden rise to fame? There was a surprisingly well orchestrated campaign, iirc. Super hot agent, market analysis, etc. Can't recall where it was I read it, though.

The exerpt makes me feel quite sorry for him. The backlash must have been scary.

At root, I think he's just a rather dim chap who's been overpromoted. The homophobia blew up in his face, and the offensive misogyny of his act meant that women had little sympathy for him.

'I feel close to God when the blessings rain down, but when the going gets tough, crickets. Why would God have let me take that beer contract if it was going to ruin me?'

Grade A toxic misogyny.
He is simply a narcissistic, dead eyed, attention seeker with some body modifications.

This pic is photoshopped to be unrecognisable.

https://x.com/serena_partrick/status/1901199464351564039?s=46

Edit. Sorry. I thought I pasted the image but it didn’t work. But it is on the tweet.

I've just read that article

https://archive.ph/Q10Eu

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/dylan-mulvaney-transgender-influencer-america-x3zt6ktpl

It was mostly so vacuous I was forgetting it even as I was reading it. Couple of things I can recall, I think the hatred he received after the bud light stuff was awful. Go after the company by all means but Dylan was just doing his shtick, he'd done worse but the conservatives didn't care because it was only women he was appropriating, mocking and patronising. The picture with Cynthia Erivo (an amazing singer), because of her unfortunate expression and the way it's been cropped it honestly looks like he's holding her severed head.

I just Googled JM. He looks like the sort of man I'd have steered my children well away from when they were younger.

I completely agree. He's embraced the grift and is going to milk it as much as he can. I don't have any time for his 'I'm a woman' nonsense and he does come accross as creepy, but I can understand his need to make money, especially in a country with no free healthcare/welfare. I think unless your rich, in a well paid job etc US seems to be very dog eat dog. Not that I feel sorry for him.

Like you say it's the rich, influential enablers who are more worthy of derision because they don't have to support nonsense for money.

Maybe even with celebrities the grift is difficult to give up though, even after you've made it ? With celebrities the need to stay relevant and therefore in the press probably plays a part too.

As far as i remember his family are very wealthy.

Yup, his family are loaded.

His parents are also politically and religiously conservative, so that type of childhood environment is an influence on his current behaviour. We know from research that HSTS men from conservative families often transition because their family do not accept their homosexuality.

All this bollocks is how we’ve ended up with Trump.

Here's the article on Mulvaney's creation, the agency taht has promoted him, etc:

https://savageminds.substack.com/p/rainbow-washing-women-out-of-existence

Thanks for the article @ArabellaScott

This line describing Dylan

a tall, lanky man who has zero athletic acumen, performing jumping jacks barefoot in a backyard almost falling over and then doing a quasi can-can, again almost falling backwards.

Reminded me in the Rolling Stone they wrote about Dylan stumbling during the photo shoot and catching himself with a dancer's grace! Yeah, right! I'd call Dylan female before I'd ever call him graceful and I would never call him female.

I've seen this misconception before, albeit about a clitoris. That a penis is a giant clitoris that allows a girl to pee standing up. Since women neither pee from their vagina nor their clitoris you do wonder at these people's grasp on the biology they want to steal!

Quite literally pissing to mark their territory, like a particularly irritating spaniel.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paper-Doll-Notes-Late-Bloomer/dp/B0DSQ9BG5F/

The glowingly approving quotes don't quite match the reviews...