How trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney kick-started a culture war

On March 8, International Women’s Day, the social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who in the modern manner lists their pronouns as ‘she/they’, posted a video on her TikTok platform. “I’m just really honoured to be grouped with all you women out there,” she said, “because you are my favourite humans on this planet.” It was day 360 in a series of TikTok postings in which Mulvaney, 26, has chronicled her transition - not only from man to trans woman, from obscurity to social media phenomenon but - in the last few weeks - to becoming the improbable flashpoint in the culture wars in America, where the debate around trans rights burns even more fiercely than in Britain. A video of Mulvaney promoting a Nike sports bra has led to calls for boycotts and bra burnings, with the Olympic swimmer and campaigner Sharron Davies describing Nike’s use of Mulvaney as “a kick in the teeth” for women, and the transwoman Caitlyn Jenner calling it as “an outrage”. More controversy has followed with Mulvaney’s promotion of America’s favourite beer, Bud Light - a brand more commonly associated with frat boy parties and manly pursuits such as NASCAR racing than with a transwoman sitting in a bubble bath glugging the beer, as Mulvaney posted in one video.