Dylan Mulvaney is a transgender influencer. She is followed by millions, and has a prominent social media presence. Her followers and others, decided to give their opinions, and felt the need to speak out on social media platforms such as Tiktok and Twitter. They expressed their thoughts regarding any videos with her and tampons. In some of her Tiktoks, she is seen filming herself discussing or showing tampons. Mulvaney even has videos handing tampons out to strangers in an effort to help others. She even said that she always keeps some in her purse. The controversy began with the public’s reactions. Being such a well known influencer, this attracted many different opinions. Most viewers were upset and said that, as a “transgender woman, she can’t use tampons!” There was a huge emphasis on “where the tampons were going?” and “how other women born female have periods and need them.” Some went as far to claim that she is the reason that there is a tampon shortage. Others further shared their blatantly rude opinions, which can be seen below in this response to a tweet about the situation. Many viewers felt the need to attack Mulvaney as well as Tampax for sponsoring this influencer, without knowing the truth behind her videos.
There were some people supporting Mulvaney, but the negative backlash, unfortunately, outweighed the positive comments.
The idea to constantly carry tampons with her at all times occurred when Mulvaney was in a restroom when another girl next to her had asked if she had any tampons on her. She froze and did not have one, so moving forward, Mulvaney wanted to be prepared for similar situations. Her intentions were pure and wanted to be ready to help women around her of they were in need. The idea was nothing more than women supporting women, but of course, social media users always feel the need to attack and bring people down. It’s heartbreaking to see Mulvaney receive this multitude of hate, when she was trying to be a kind and helpful.
When addressing the issue she states that she never even worked with Tampax before. They had sent Dylan a few boxes of tampons in April, which she ended up handing out to any women in need, understanding that tampons are an expensive item that many women can’t afford. Addressing the situation further, she states that she has never been sponsored by or made money from promoting feminine hygiene products. Her goal was to influence men to carry tampons to help other women. Sometimes people don’t understand, nor accept the fact that the transgender community are real humans with feelings. Everyone deserves respect, and at the bare minimum, the time of day to be heard by others. It’s contradicting for cis-gendered women to attack Dylan for this when at the end of the day she preaches the “women helping women” mentality.
For other woman to be disappointed in Tampax without doing research and understanding the situation makes me upset. The partnership claims were proven false. This puts Dylan is such an uncomfortable situation and seems like a lousy excuse for people to hide behind screens and bully. Even worse, men even decided to give their perception of the situation since Dylan was born male, as if that has anything to with the changes she went through. Realistically, everyone should be promoting female hygiene products. It is so unfortunate when being out and realizing you bled through or got your period unannounced.
Most should feel foolish and disgusted for wasting their time spreading negativity for no reason. This further proves that people should educate themselves before speaking on topics they simply do not know enough about.
The fact that this influencer even had to come onto her own platform and address this situation is disheartening. This situation occurred in 2022, and the fact that it is being talked about in 2023 is bizarre. People care so deeply about what others are doing and pin them negatively when in reality everyone, especially women should be lifting each other up. It does not make sense to attack her for being kind and wanting to be accepted. Dylan was being thoughtful and selfless in a situation that caused her terrible backlash for no reason. It is heartbreaking to say the least.
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Thank you for posting about this. When I first heard there was a partnership or that she was the “face” of tampax, I honestly was a bit skeptical (privately, and not openly hating on her on the internet). This is why it’s so important to stay up to date on news like this and debunk false claims that literally anyone can fall for. I think it’s very sweet that she does this and I feel bad about her getting hated on.
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I think this is a great topic for a blog post. I have talked to so many people with different opinions about this, and I just feel bad for Dylan. All of the people hating on Dylan have no idea what it feels like to be in her position.
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This topic was super interesting to read about. Personally, I was a little iffy when I heard this story because it just did not seem true. I think the bigger issue here is how out of control everything becomes. It was a few TikToks with good intentions that blew up and caused so much controversy, more often then not people jumped to unnecessary conclusions.
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I had no idea this was going on! Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed reading about it even though it is a disheartening story. I think this is an example of how out of control the internet can get with its assumptions. Dylan was just trying to be a supporter of women and it has now caused so much unnecessary upheaval. It is also upsetting at how quickly people will demonize a transgender person for simply being transgender.
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