Dylan Mulvaney Says She’s Lost Sleep Following Backlash from Bud Light Partnership
Influencer talks about the effects of the hate she's received
Dylan Mulvaney has been tight lipped about the fallout from her partnership with Bud Light. But on a new podcast, she revealed she has lost sleep over the backlash.
Mulvaney is the transgender woman and social media influencer who, several weeks ago, found herself the object of right-wing scorn over nothing more than her endorsement deal with a brand of light beer.
Speaking with Schuyler Bailar for his podcast Dear Schuyler, Mulvaney spoke about the process of transitioning and being thrust onto the world stage as a representative for the transgender community. It was one of a handful of interviews Mulvaney has done since widespread boycotts against Bud Light broke out after the company partnered with the influencer.
Mulvaney said the process has been hard to cope with.
Prominent right-wing celebrities got up in arms — sometimes literally — over the decision by Anheuser-Busch executives to promote their Bud Light brand with the popular Mulvaney as some right-wingers took to publicly shooting at cans of the beer in protest.
The transphobic hate directed at Mulvaney is just a manifestation of the wider anti-trans bias and hate across the United States where Republicans are passing laws to strip transgender Americans of rights.
During her interview with Bailar, Mulvaney talked about herself being a people-pleaser, and the effect that has had on her.
“And I mean, I remember like, even in college, this was just a few years ago, like if one person potentially didn’t like me, it would keep me up at night. Like truly, I was like, ‘Oh God, how do I fix this?’ And now there are hundreds of thousands of people that do not like me,” Mulvaney said. “And I still sometimes can’t sleep. But it, in a weird way, has been a blessing to sort of break that people pleasing mentality because I can’t, there’s no way that I can win those people over. And I actually, if you’ll go back to some of my earlier videos, like, I was like pleading with these people that — you know, I was like, what can I say to show them a different part of myself? What can I do?
“And now I’ll like sift through comments and I’ll read them and they’ll start constructive, you know, either you’re too feminine or, you know, you’re doing this, and then it’ll be like, ‘You will never be a woman.’ And that’s when I stop reading because I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s nothing constructive about this,’” she added. “But when I speak on camera, on, you know, on my platform, it is for the people that care about me, that do see me as a woman, that value me. It’s not for those other people, and I I’m less concerned about them now because — ”
Mulvaney lamented that her page on social media started as “a pretty safe space,” but recently has been transformed to “become this like culture war in the comments.”
“I’ve been wondering a lot this past week of like what the psychological effects, like, are and will be of being called a man thousands and thousands of times a day. I’m really trying to get better about not seeing that stuff because it’s hard, because like I want to be accessible to the right people, but then in other ways, like, then if — you know, one person ruins it for us all,” she said. “I can’t check the [personal messages] or I have to limit the comments.
“And I fear what has happened is that I have not actually gotten to process anything that’s happened this year or what this has been, and so I’m hoping that — you know, I’ve got a really great therapist, life coach, like, we’re putting in the work,” she added.
Mulvaney also said she leans on a support system that includes her therapist, her partner, family, and friends, which she added that “all my friends are trans.”
“And in terms of like the effects of me being called a man thousands of times, I think the transphobia that I’m facing is very different than like the transphobia of like maybe a trans woman that’s not in the public spotlight because, you know, that’s happening on the street or, you know, with their partner or, you know, they’re — ” she added, noting that she is “like the most privileged trans woman.”
Please support our work…
Also, please subscribe…