Lady Gaga's Promotion of Dylan Mulvaney on "International Women's Day" is a Mockery of Women
/Lady Gaga received “backlash” after featuring TikTok phenomenon Dylan Mulvaney on International Women’s Day, but the musical artist rejected the term. “I feel it is important to clarify that hatred is hatred, and this kind of hatred is violence. ‘Backlash’ would imply that people who love or respect Dylan and me didn’t like something we did. This is not backlash. This is hatred.”
She’s assuming her fans couldn’t possibly be upset with her featuring Mulvaney—a man who has issued veiled threats against his critics and suggested “misgendering” him should be illegal—but that’s silly. Lady Gaga is a talented international superstar, and the power of music transcends borders, cultures, and ideologies. Fans separate artists from art all of the time. Of course, Lady Gaga has fans who enjoy her music with various opinions, including that men are men and shall always be. No one should be surprised by Lady Gaga’s activism for transgenders, but that doesn’t mean fans shouldn’t be offended.
Or perhaps Lady Gaga believes anyone who wouldn’t accept Dylan Mulvaney’s gender identity couldn’t possibly be her fan. If that’s the case, she should plainly state her intention to gatekeep her music.
If International Women’s Day is meant to draw attention to the plights women face as well as their accomplishments, it is incredibly inappropriate to include trans-identifying males, no matter how strongly they believe themselves to be women. Gender identity is a belief system, and International Women’s Day is not a religious holiday. If being a woman is as frivolous as a thought, why would any of our struggles or our achievements matter? Why did it devastate women across the country when Hillary Clinton failed to become the first female president if Donald J. Trump could have come out on stage and simply announced he was going to identify as a woman, thus, taking the historical title for himself? Would we celebrate the glass ceiling finally being shattered? Would women everywhere be grateful that the white male patriarchy finally came to an end at the hands of Trump? What if he were gender fluid and a woman only led the country on some days? Should women feel just as proud, or should it come and go in waves?
Lady Gaga says she feels “very protective in this moment” for not only Dylan but the trans community as a whole, but it’s possible to do that without celebrating a man who slapped on some lipstick and portrayed girlhood as crying too much and buying too many clothes. Mulvaney’s original plot into “girlhood” was to be a caricature, and though he has apologized for his early renditions, Mulvaney’s new music video reverted to that caricature with the addition of the usage of prescription drugs, one-night stands, spending all day in bed, and checking out hot guys. But his portrayal speaks to the larger issue with the transgender movement. How would a man know what it feels like to be a woman? He can only assume based on observations he’s made and mimic a stereotype. Mulvaney could still crossdress, pop pills, have meaningless sex, and spend all day in bed as a flamboyant gay man. The only downside to not identifying as a woman for Mulvaney would be his lack of fame.
Mulvaney once told his female critics, “P.S. I am also very nervous for you just because, hopefully, soon, transphobia won’t be as tolerated online but your tweets are forever, and I don’t want those to come back and haunt you. Okay?” Despite the fact he was dressed in pink and caked with makeup and big hair, the message of “Shut up if you know what’s good for you,” was understood. It’s a message that women like Riley Gaines were told when athletic departments wanted to favor trans-identifying male athletes over them. Lady Gaga can do whatever she’d like with her platform, but it would have been more appropriate to highlight the reality of unequal treatment women face by featuring someone like Gaines rather than showcasing a man who wants women to validate his fantasies. And after doubling down, Lady Gaga is telling the world if we don’t validate a man’s feelings, we are hateful.
I don’t believe coddling the egos of men is the intended purpose of International Women’s Day.
