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Notes -
Is Dylan Mulvaney the Trans Andy Kaufmann?
Watching the Dylan Mulvaney spectacle play out has left me with an odd feeling that I’ve struggled to quite put a finger on, with Mulvaney causing me to have something like an uncanny valley reaction to his transition and demeanor. I don’t mean this to say that Mulvaney looks almost female, but not quite, I mean that Mulvaney gives me the impression of someone that isn’t sincere about transitioning, but has put enough effort into it that I’m not exactly sure what’s going on and what to make of this person. In light of the recent Bud Light debacle I’ve finally settled on an explanation that makes more sense to me - Mulvaney is a modern Andy Kaufman, playing the part of a trans person well enough to convince some people, while others are in on the joke, and all of them contribute to Mulvaney’s accrual of fame and cash.
Who was Andy Kaufman? I think the Wiki summary is better than anything I’ll write up:
Kaufman made people laugh, get angry with him, and even physically attack him by playacting at different roles so successfully than people couldn’t tell where the sincere Kaufman stopped and the characters began. When I watch Dylan Mulvaney advertise native-scented deodorant, I don’t see someone that’s genuinely trying to be a woman. I see someone that’s clowning the concept, mocking women, mocking trans people, and exploiting the clicks for fun and profit.
I wasn’t around for Kaufman, so this comparison is likely imperfect. Nonetheless, watching people react to what sure looks to me like a running joke as though it’s perfectly sincere has been entirely surreal. I see people on the pro-trans side treating Mulvaney as sincere. If I’m right and this is a running joke, Joe Biden sure didn’t get the word. My inclination has been to chalk this up to people becoming sufficiently accustomed to never question claims from trans people that playing along with Dylan Mulvaney is no different than the rest of it, and even if they have doubts, they’re surely not going to look at Dylan and saying, “oh, come the fuck on”. So even though this was weird, it wasn’t until the Bud Light thing that it began to really seem hyperreal to me.
Here, watch this 35 second reaction video from Kid Rock. What’s going on here? Is Kid Rock sincerely pissed off at Bud Light, so pissed off that the only way to express it is with a burst of automatic weapons fire supplemented by some covering fire from a shotgun-wielding buddy? Is he basically sincere in his reaction, but strongly exaggerating the reaction because it’s funny? Is he ambivalent, but doing it for the clicks and lols? Is he part of the Bud Light advertising campaign, just driving the product into people’s mindspace? Does he agree with me that the whole thing is a big joke and he’s just rolling with his own improv? I don’t know and I don’t even know how I would know.
Vox reports that people have reacted in real life:
Well, what are those people thinking? Are they genuinely pissed, but not so pissed as to permanently give up a product that seems completely fungible with other light beers? How about Ben Shapiro:
Well, I’m glad he at least kept the on-brand smugness. In fact, no one seems to be missing out on their normal branding, which lends itself to the hyperreal experience. In keeping with that, I will smugly note that I don’t drink that shit anyway and I’ll be cracking an IPA from a real industry underdog - Lagunitas(tm), a tiny subsidiary of a little-known international parent company. Thank God that I’m not getting taken in by all this hyperreal marketing.
The whole Dylan Mulvaney thing has been grimly amusing to me from the start, because I was familiar with Dylan during his days as a musical theatre performer here in San Diego. His Wikipedia page references that he performed in a number of musicals in San Diego, which is his hometown as well as mine; I think the first time I saw him perform was in a production of Spring Awakening at the Cygnet Theatre in 2013, although I can’t remember if that was before or after his performance in Bare: A Pop Opera. In both cases, he played the same essential character - an incredibly effeminate, fey, vulnerable gay teenager.
I believe I met him casually a couple of times since we were both in the theatre scene, though this would have been a decade ago and I don’t recall for sure. He has certainly always been extraordinarily gay - steeped in gayness! - ever since I became familiar with him, so I’m pretty confident that that part at least isn’t an act. But, being a working actor, especially in this day and age, is an incredibly cutthroat, sink-or-swim kind of life, and any edge you can give yourself - anything, genuine or fabricated, that can provide you with any sort of leverage or leg up over other actors - is a vital step toward fame and longevity. If you’re correct that he identified an untapped niche and ruthlessly pursued it, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least and would be entirely consistent with my experience of theatre people, and of late-in-life-transitioning theatre people more specifically.
The problem with an act like this is that if he ever slows it down, he’s going to be eaten alive. Andy Kaufman was faking and everyone knew it, so he could get credit for his creative work, and if he stopped doing something, nobody cared because it was an act. If Mulvaney stopped being as girly as he is, he’ll be crucified for crimes against wokeness.
Being crucified would hardly be a problem for an attention seeker - who wouldn't want to be high up on a cross on a hill where everyone can look at you? One could easily imagine him pivoting to being ex-trans, or Gays For Trump, or anything else that might keep eyes on him or her.
Speaking of shameless attention seeking- I recently saw that Milo Yianopolis (sp) was still doing speaking events, but now as a formerly gay totally straight born again christian. Probably the most insulting identity shift i'm currently aware of.
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