Transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney says he is ready to be known as an “actress” instead of an activist and admitted that his videos chronicling his days of “girlhood” were in fact a performance.
In a recent interview with inline magazine Them, Mulvaney spoke about gaining fame through his transgender activism and that he would have advised himself to be more cautious about posting his gender transition videos if he could.
“There’s a level of me that knows I wanted success … but I didn’t know it was going to be for my transness,” he said. “And I just kind of wish I could tap myself on the shoulder, right before I made that video, the first one, and just be like, ‘Hey, let’s not … Let’s make sure you’re in a good place and you are safe and that you’ve had the conversations with the people that you need to talk to before you talk to everyone,’” he added.
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Mulvaney, who has over 10 million TikTok followers, gained notoriety for his video series called “Days of Girlhood,” in which he counted his days of being a woman in the style of a bubbly, teenage girl.
However, the interview often referred to his gender transition period as a “project,” with Mulvaney remarking that he is ready to move on from his project and pursue other entertainment avenues.
“When I was living that project, when I was living those days, I mean, it was joy,” Mulvaney said. “And what I saw from viewers was that it was what I think we all need a little bit of right now — something to combat the darkness.”
Mulvaney explained how he wants to be referred to as “Actress Dylan Mulvaney,” or even “Comedian Dylan Mulvaney.” As opposed to “right now, the headlines call me ‘TikTok Trans Activist Dylan Mulvaney’.”
“I would love to do that through Hollywood, where we still haven’t seen enough exposure,” he claimed.
Despite growing up as a Catholic, Mulvaney said that theater programs allowed him to be “queer.” “Theater got me through,” he said. “It was where I got to live with other queer kids, even if we didn’t know we were at the time.”
The 26-year-old also described how he is “scared” of being followed in public:
“I never expected to have people following me, or experience such negative media attention. I walk into a room and I never know if somebody is going to really love me or really hate me.”
Since a disastrous campaign with Mulvaney and Bud Light, the beer brand has lost a reported $27 billion, according to the Daily Mail. Top executives at the company were even forced to take a leave of absence after the massive nosedive in sales.
Mulvaney said he preferred “not to name any of” of his critics regarding the fiasco, as he didn’t want to give them “the satisfaction.”
Them’s annual Now Awards honor 12 LGBTQ+ people across 12 categories who represent the cutting edge of queer culture today. Collectively, they represent our community’s endless, drive, ingenuity, and unstoppable power.
Get to know this year's honorees: https://t.co/ZPKOXZOhjt pic.twitter.com/RAWgF96AnL
— Them (@them) June 6, 2023
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