Althouse: "So, Dylan, that's womanhood. Everyone on earth wants you to be a shiny, 2-dimensional caricature...."

March 28, 2025

"So, Dylan, that's womanhood. Everyone on earth wants you to be a shiny, 2-dimensional caricature...."

What happens when "girlhood" gets old? Dylan Mulvaney ages out:

67 comments:

MadisonMan said...: As if the same thing doesn't happen to men. Newsflash to everyone: You are not special.; 3/28/25, 9:02 AM
Iman said...: Delusion is a terrible thing to waste. /sarc; 3/28/25, 9:03 AM
Kate said...: No, it's not and no, they don't.

Fame wants you to be shiny.; 3/28/25, 9:08 AM
Achilles said...: IMO on average Women age out around 35 men age out around 60 when discussing overall physical attractiveness. Men have more mitigation opportunity.

I look forward to the fluidity of the attention seekers as they switch back in their 40s.; 3/28/25, 9:10 AM
Jaq said...: Wouldn't it be great if athletes like, for example, Pavel Bure, could be 27 forever? Watch his top goals on YouTube sometime. Now he's limping on his blown out knee around some nice property he bought with the hay he made while the sun shone.

Or we this poem, which was written in 1545

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avoit desclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,
A point perdu ceste vesprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vostre pareil.
...

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que vostre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez vostre jeunesse :
Comme à ceste fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir vostre beauté.

Grok or Chat will translate it for you, or as it is crudely translated into English: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."; 3/28/25, 9:12 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: I hate the way wikipedia, and most news article write about this person. Dylan was not born a "She" - she didn't have a "Girlhood". She was a "He" until "he" got his sex change operation. Then he become she. After that she is she.

I'm getting tired of constantly having to figure out on my own, that these people aren't women, they're men who've had a sex change operation.

I guess all the "Liberals" were sad that the Gay crusade was over, they'd won and had nothing more to subvert or use as a weapon against those Goddamn Religious Republicans. So, they've moved on to Transgenders. They put out the party line and all the liberal/lefts are pushing it.

Judging from the pushback, it may be a bridge too far, but never underestimate the moronic conformism of the American people. I see 4 fingers should be their motto.; 3/28/25, 9:14 AM
Randomizer said...: His womanhood is phony. How does anyone have a serious conversation with Dylan? Are there no actual women who can take the role of a feminine caricature?; 3/28/25, 9:16 AM
Old and slow said...: "Sad ways" he says. Indeed.; 3/28/25, 9:22 AM
FullMoon said...: RCOCEAN II said...
I'm getting tired of constantly having to figure out on my own, that these people aren't women, they're men who've had a sex change operation.

How about when you see an unfamiliar face on TV, usually someone in govt, and wonder if "she" was born a "he".?
Thank Biden appointments for that; 3/28/25, 9:22 AM
Peachy said...: Some men think they will end up with a glossy magazine super model.
What really happens - is they end up alone.

Only rock stars and movie stars with big bank accounts get the young pretties. Yes- Many Americans are superficial. Not all.
Hippies get it.; 3/28/25, 9:22 AM
Mason G said...: "She was a "He" until "he" got his sex change operation."

Perplexity says:

"Dylan Mulvaney has undergone facial feminization surgery (FFS), which included several procedures to enhance her facial features and align them with her gender identity. There is no public confirmation that she has undergone any other gender-affirming surgeries, such as sex reassignment surgery (SRS), specifically "bottom surgery" or genital surgery."; 3/28/25, 9:26 AM
Wince said...: Mulvaney was talking about doing 180s as far his/her own public facing personae that he/her curated for himself/herself over over time.

But the interviewer instead said it was the public's fault for not tracking with the ever evolving Mulvaney, and then attributed that "2-dimensional caricature" perception to sexism by saying that is the prejudice imposed on every woman.

Yeesh. If anything, the 2-dimensional perception is emblematic of fame (in the truest Warhol sense), not sex, especially when the perception was curated by the very person who was desperately seeking that fame and notoriety in the first place.; 3/28/25, 9:29 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: “ Grok or Chat will translate it for you, or as it is crudely translated into English: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” is the actual first line of the poem, written in English by Robert Herrick. Why crudely translate it into French?

Anyway, the video clip of that conversation is convincing evidence that becoming a woman requires significant brain reduction. Not sure if that’s accomplished surgically or through hormones.; 3/28/25, 9:42 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Mulvaney enacted a style of "girlhood" that was based on Audrey Hepburn (as she appeared in movies) and other very perky, energetic, cute young women. No one can consistently put on this style. It was an illusion for Hepburn herself. She had a big movie crew and supporting actors holding up her performance. But these days, with social media, so many people are trying to produce their own act. It must be a terrible effort! How can the charm, if any, last? And how idiotically desperate it must feel when you are losing it. What did you think you were doing? You were enacting freshness and youthful innocence. It was inherently a contradiction. But it could be funny and cute (to some) for a while. But if you cling to girlish cuteness as you age, you're not Audrey Hepburn, you're Bette Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" How do you play young when you are old? You have to be an out and proud pathetic hag, like Bette.; 3/28/25, 9:48 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: "There is no public confirmation that she has undergone any other gender-affirming surgeries, such as sex reassignment surgery (SRS), specifically "bottom surgery" or genital surgery."

So what? This is just the MSM rhetorical trick of saying "Without evidence X said..." Did "Perplexity" look for evidence? Doubtful. And that there is no "Public confirmation" is irrelevant. And why the strange word "Confirmation"? Confirmation from WHO?

1. He was born a man and is now a women.
2. Obvious deduction - he had a sex change operation
3. Saying there is "no public Confirmation" of that is just meaningless.
4. There is no need to have it "publically confirmed".; 3/28/25, 9:58 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: So if I understand this right, Dylan Mulvaney is more of a trans-child than a trans-woman.; 3/28/25, 9:59 AM
narciso said...: isn't she? on minute 15;05; 3/28/25, 10:00 AM
Iman said...: Dylan came from San Diego, Ca
Grifted shim’s way across the USA
Plucked shim’s eyebrows along the way
Shaved shim’s legs and then shim’s on teh flim
Shim says, "Hey babe, take a walk on the deluded side"
Said, "Hey honey, take a walk on the deluded side"; 3/28/25, 10:03 AM
Aggie said...: Just a few seconds is exhausting. His demands for attention are worse than any panhandler's pleas. There is no 'there', there.; 3/28/25, 10:06 AM
Wince said...: Althouse said...
And how idiotically desperate it must feel when you are losing it... But if you cling to girlish cuteness as you age, you're not Audrey Hepburn, you're Bette Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Helena: I haven't worked since 1934, how do you think I am?
...It was sad for a Three Stooges, what with the dead baby and the Stooges being executed and all.

Kramer! Kramer!; 3/28/25, 10:08 AM
Narr said...: He was born a man and remains one--a sad delusional man. Surgery doesn't change that.; 3/28/25, 10:10 AM
Quaestor said...: "I'm getting tired of constantly having to figure out on my own, that these people aren't women, they're men who've had a sex change operation."

A sex change operation isn't a sex change operation. What the patient gets is fraud that is currently immune from prosecution like most other con jobs. Instead the patient receives a disguise that's in place when the he awakes in the morning, giving him a tactical advantage over the simple cross-dresser.; 3/28/25, 10:14 AM
Dave Begley said...: Hard for a man to experience menopause.; 3/28/25, 10:16 AM
Quaestor said...: Paying for a sex change operation is like buying a Rolex from a street vendor.; 3/28/25, 10:16 AM
Kate said...: Bette was born to play a pathetic hag. (With all due respect to Davis, lol.) Audrey's last role is a cameo as an angel named Hap. She is, as she always was, radiant.

It's about talent, charisma, and craft. If Mulvaney is aging out of his niche, don't blame womanhood.; 3/28/25, 10:17 AM
hombre said...: “… that I AM ….” Oh, look. Dylan thinks he’s God.; 3/28/25, 10:30 AM
narciso said...: You know I never got the reference in that kim carnes song 'bette davis eyes'; 3/28/25, 10:31 AM
Ampersand said...: To Dylan and his ilk: some day this will all seem funny.; 3/28/25, 10:32 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: RCOCEAN II said...
So what?

It goes to the level of commitment. Which also reveals the severity of the mental illness.; 3/28/25, 10:32 AM
Jaq said...: Robert Herrick was born fifty years after the famous and beautiful first poem was written, so I stand by my statement.

"Some men think they will end up with a glossy magazine super model.
What really happens - is they end up alone."

Nah. I think that this happens to women more than men, and the men are left alone because the women all think that they are out of the normal man's league, but it could all be fantasy. It sounds like fantasy, but then I am out of the game and hors de combat in the battle of the sexes..; 3/28/25, 10:35 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: My questions: Is there a Dylan Mulvaney equivalent on the fake man side? What would a woman -- acting out her fantasy of what being a grossly stereotyped man is, -- look like, and how ridiculous would that be? Would it attract the kind of sustained mania that the absurd Dylan has, and if not, is that further proof of the patriarchy?; 3/28/25, 10:39 AM
PM said...: "the dylan hour" - generous, but just about right.; 3/28/25, 10:41 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: I asked Grok, and Grok says, as I laugh:
Let’s imagine a female equivalent to Dylan Mulvaney’s “fake woman” persona—a woman playing an exaggerated, stereotyped “man” for the sake of performance or satire. Picture this: she’d probably call herself something like “Chad Thundercock” or “Brock Beefslab,” swaggering around in a comically oversized tank top, cargo shorts, and a backward baseball cap. She’d chug beer like it’s a competitive sport, grunt loudly while pretending to lift imaginary weights, and interrupt every conversation with “Bro, you gotta hit the gym” or “No homo, but…” She might slap on a fake beard, draw abs on herself with a Sharpie, and spend her days posting TikToks about “crushing it” at life while flexing in front of a pickup truck she doesn’t own. Maybe she’d even do a “Days of Being a Dude” series, chronicling her journey into peak masculinity with over-the-top bravado and a protein shake in hand.
How ridiculous would it be? Pretty damn ridiculous—on par with Mulvaney’s bubblegum-pink, hyper-feminine caricature. The absurdity would come from the same place: leaning hard into stereotypes so cartoonish they’re more parody than person. Think of it like a female version of a frat bro from a bad 2000s comedy—loud, crude, and oblivious, with a side of performative machismo. It’d be funny for a minute, maybe even go viral for the sheer audacity, but sustained mania? That’s where it gets tricky.
Mulvaney’s shtick blew up partly because it tapped into a cultural nerve—gender norms, identity politics, and a mix of fascination and outrage from all sides. A “fake man” counterpart might get laughs, but it’s less likely to hit the same fever pitch. Why? Not necessarily “patriarchy,” but context. Society’s been dissecting femininity as a performance for decades—think drag queens, Barbie dolls, or even Madonna cycling through personas. A woman doing “man” in a goofy way doesn’t carry the same subversive weight; it’s more likely to be seen as punching up or just silly, not a lightning rod for existential debates. Plus, the outrage machine loves a target it can frame as “threatening” norms—Mulvaney’s femininity got weaponized in culture wars in a way a “Brock Beefslab” probably wouldn’t. A woman acting like a meathead might just be… shrugged off as a bit.
That said, if “Brock” did catch fire—say, with the right mix of charisma, timing, and controversy—it could absolutely draw a crowd. Imagine her storming into traditionally male spaces (like a car show or a sports bar) and out-bro-ing the bros, sparking debates about “authenticity” or “appropriation.” The absurdity could sustain if it pissed off the right people or charmed enough others. But if it didn’t? I wouldn’t call it proof of patriarchy so much as proof that cultural obsessions are fickle—Mulvaney’s a unicorn, not a formula. Gender’s a factor, sure, but so is the zeitgeist. A “fake man” might just need better PR.; 3/28/25, 10:42 AM
tim maguire said...: Everyone on earth wants you to be a shiny, 2-dimensional caricature...."

Even assuming the universal “you” and not Dylan specifically, it’s still a dumb thing to say. Hardly anyone wants anyone to be a 2-dimensional caricature.; 3/28/25, 10:49 AM
tim maguire said...: Everyone on earth wants you to be a shiny, 2-dimensional caricature...."

Even assuming the universal “you” and not Dylan specifically, it’s still a dumb thing to say. Hardly anyone wants anyone to be a 2-dimensional caricature.; 3/28/25, 10:49 AM
David53 said...: I can understand a crazy person wanting to be a young Shelley Duvall but nobody wants to be an old Shelley Duvall. Her career petered out in the 90s. She just wasn’t wanted anymore. Robert Duvall is still making movies in his 90s.; 3/28/25, 11:00 AM
john mosby said...: Barry Sanders: "Is there a Dylan Mulvaney equivalent on the fake man side?"

Every feminist ever.

JSM; 3/28/25, 11:06 AM
JAORE said...: The first time I saw "her" I didn't think, "That's a man playing a woman". I clearly saw a man playing a teenage girl.

The creep factor was (to me) off the charts disgusting. As she ages I suppose she had to cut out the teeny-bopper crap ("Hello, fellow kids). One suspects her appeal will become more and more selective.; 3/28/25, 11:10 AM
Milo Minderbinder said...: Pretending your life away is so much fun.... Dylan's oddity is past its use-by date; why pay any more attention to this narcissist?; 3/28/25, 11:14 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "How can the charm, if any, last? And how idiotically desperate it must feel when you are losing it. What did you think you were doing?"

Look back on the old videos Mulvaney did, when first rising to fame. The very look that seems highly girlish also looks like fear. The raised eyebrows and wide-open eyes, the flailing hands, the nervous smile. It's not a comfortable feeling. If being trans is about relieving a painful feeling of not being comfortable in one's own skin, where was that relief? So much agitation, so much dependence on the love of others — where is the remedy?; 3/28/25, 11:16 AM
n.n said...: When gender transition becomes a drag... show. Did he ever lose his manhood?; 3/28/25, 11:21 AM
n.n said...: Is Dylan trans/homosexual with a heterosexual kink?; 3/28/25, 11:22 AM
Nancy said...: When I was on high school I translated that poem. First and last stanzas:

Mignonne, let's go see if the rose
Which but this morning did disclose
Her robe of purple to the sun
Has not yet lost this afternoon
Her purple pleats, and just as soon,
Complexion like your own Mignonne.
...
So, Mignonne, if you believe
What I have shown to you this eve
Then, while your age is fresh and new,
Gather, gather up your youth!
You've seen this flower, love; in truth
Old age will end your beauty too.; 3/28/25, 11:39 AM
Lazarus said...: I can't get past those Nancy Pelosi eyebrows ...; 3/28/25, 11:43 AM
n.n said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/28/25, 11:48 AM
n.n said...: Sex change with mRNA treatment, perhaps. Gender simulation through grooming and Planned Pubertyhood.; 3/28/25, 11:53 AM
Leland said...: Kate nailed it, although I'll make one slight change. Usually, people become famous because of a single dimension of who they are. Although really famous is usually 2 dimensions, such as age and beauty.; 3/28/25, 11:54 AM
n.n said...: Geriatric dysphoria brooks no gender differences.; 3/28/25, 11:55 AM
Ice Nine said...: The blonde chick (erm, the real one) is absolutely enthralled by him.

We get a twofer on travesty.; 3/28/25, 11:58 AM
Leslie Graves said...: I'm re-reading War and Peace, where Natasha, the quintessential girl, unconsciously and unintentionally grows into her adorable girl charmingness, but then becomes aware of it, at which point it becomes less charming, and then moves into womanhood through various perils.; 3/28/25, 12:14 PM
Dogma and Pony Show said...: So Dylan has a sex (male), a gender identity (female), and also a "style of girlhood" (Audrey Hepburn). Presumably, as a mere style, "Audrey Hepburn" was just a choice among many available options. But we're supposed to believe that Dylan's female gender identity is somehow intrinsic to his/her/their being?

This is obviously just a character someone has selected for themselves that they enjoy playing (for whatever reason). The only two things that are real here are (a) a person's sex, and (b) their personality, which may be masculine or effeminate, introverted or extroverted, charming or mean, etc., etc., etc.; 3/28/25, 12:48 PM
Tina Trent said...: Another fitting poem for the fame-seeking woman-hater on display here is Thomas Wyatt's "They Flee From Me" and quite a few more by Wyatt. The early 16th Century certainly had a firmer grasp on sex:

They flee from me that sometimes did me seek...
...now are wild and do not remember
That sometimes they put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.; 3/28/25, 1:11 PM
n.n said...: When gender gaming garners no grift the dysphoria progresses.; 3/28/25, 1:19 PM
n.n said...: What it feels like for a man with a feminine gender gaming gift gone.; 3/28/25, 1:26 PM
JIM said...: I'm still trying to understand how a major US beer company thought a he/she would be a viable, sustainable spokesman to their mostly male clientele.
Now we have aging-out Hippies torching Tesla's, calling Elon a Nazi, while showing up in actual Nazi cars, because Musk is questioning the authority and funding of the up-ratcheting bureaucracy.
But Maga is weird.; 3/28/25, 1:51 PM
Christopher B said...: So now it's womanface instead of girlface?; 3/28/25, 1:53 PM
Lazarus said...: Is there a Dylan Mulvaney equivalent on the fake man side?

M->F drag has always been more "flamboyant" than F->M impersonation. There is a lot of what one might take for "cosplay" on the lesbian scene. The problem with "Brock Beefslab" is that Mulvaney is playing a particular kind of pixyish "Audrey Hepburn" character, so the counterpart on the other side would be a woman or transman playing something more like a boy than a man. Call him "Timmie." You may see bits of him in Elliot Page, Kristen Stewart or the young K.D. Lang.; 3/28/25, 2:21 PM
Lazarus said...: The beer business was a fringe thing that went viral. Heinerscheid thought she was appealing to a small group of Mulvaney fans and the whole country found out about it and jeered.; 3/28/25, 2:23 PM
Josephbleau said...: Your gritty real life begins once you are thrown off the cute bus. All female MBA’s learn this at the office.; 3/28/25, 2:32 PM
Robin Goodfellow said...: narciso said...
You know I never got the reference in that kim carnes song 'bette davis eyes'

What about the parody, ‘Mart Feldman Eyes’?; 3/28/25, 3:27 PM
Jaq said...: I think it was the statement of the ad executive who said that they needed to change the brand because the customers were shrinking away, and that it was too "fratty" that killed the brand, which could have survived if she, the executive, hadn't opened her mouth.

So the customers just said "Buh bye, then!"; 3/28/25, 3:31 PM
Jaq said...: The creative ages are over. Now we take their stories and hollow them out and dump our politics into them because who can miss the opportunity to inflict their politics on an audience that they imagine won't notice the drip.; 3/28/25, 3:37 PM
tcrosse said...: Mullaney lacked the elegance of Audrey Hepburn. He was more like Sandra Dee.; 3/28/25, 5:16 PM
EAB said...: Dylan always seems to be putting on an act. I’m not convinced s/he is truly transgender. “Girlhood” started as a way to earn a living when Broadway shut down. I don’t think it’s sustainable. Andrew Sullivan called her a minstrel. A femme boy’s caricature of a girly girl. Can a femme boy do aging woman?; 3/28/25, 7:35 PM
mikee said...: I read the title, without the video showing, and wondered why our blog hostess was concerned with her favorite musician's apparent interest in young women. Confusion cleared rapidly as I read the "Mulvaney" part, and saw the video. Perhaps the confusion of gender and fame attributions to completely inappropriate subjects could be called that in future. Let's avoid future Mulvaneys.; 3/28/25, 7:41 PM
TaeJohnDo said...: He's a scam man.; 3/28/25, 8:52 PM
Biff said...: Somehow, I found the interviewer, Glennon Doyle, to be even more annoying than Dylan. For about a second, I thought she was a simpering, virtue-signaling 20-something. Then I realized she had the video filters turned up to 11 and actually was a 49-year-old playing the role of a simpering, virtue-signaling 20-something.; 3/29/25, 10:02 AM