Dylan Mulvaney: Trolls are boycotting Nike over trans TikToker modelling women’s leggings
Transphobes are now saying they’ll boycott Nike because Dylan Mulvaney wore some leggings. (Dylan Mulvaney/Instagram/Getty)
Olympian Sharron Davies has hit out at influencer Dylan Mulvaney for her partnership with Nike, describing her wearing a pair of leggings as a “kick in the teeth”.
Mulvaney, best known for her “days of girlhood” TikTok series, posted a Nike advert to Instagram on Thursday (6 April), showing her wearing the brand’s leggings and sports bra while relaxing and doing yoga poses in her home.
The advert appears to be a small-scale sponsorship with the brand, rather than a large campaign or modelling opportunity.
However, this didn’t stop Sharron Davies from slamming the sportswear brand for partnering with Dylan Mulvaney, claiming that paying the 26-year-old to advertise their clothes is “frustrating” when so little sponsorship money goes to female athletes in the United States.
Speaking on GB News in a segment that misgendered Mulvaney and saw her described as “not a woman”, Davies praised World Athletics and Swim England for enacting bans on trans athletes, criticising Mulvaney – who is not a professional athlete – for being “un-athletic” in her advert.
“The ad feels like a parody of what women are. In the past it was always seen as an insult to say, ‘run like a girl’, and here we’ve got someone behaving in a way that’s very un-sportslike and very unathletic,” she said.
“It’s so frustrating when only one per cent of the US sponsorship dollar… goes to actual females in sport. That Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth.”
Sharon Davies, who has previously claimed that she has faced bankruptcy due to her anti-trans views, added that critics of Dylan Mulvaney should “boycott” the multi-billion dollar sportswear company.
She claimed: “The only way we can make these companies and governments sit up and listen is to boycott with our wallet”.
Unsurprisingly, Caitlyn Jenner also weighed in on Mulvaney’s advert, describing the brand as “woke”, and calling out Nike’s “double standard” for hiring the influencer after reportedly slashing the sponsorship pay of Olympian Allyson Felix when she got pregnant.
The Nike backlash comes just days after transphobes have claimed they will boycott Bud Light for giving Mulvaney a beer with her face on it as part of a campaign.
The social media sensation explained that the beer company sent her a customised can to mark the one year anniversary of her TikTok series, which sees her vlog about her transitioning journey.
Right-wing transphobes called for a boycott of Bud Light over the single beer can – which wasn’t part of a full advertising campaign – expressing their anger that a trans woman should receive a free product.
“Never drinking Bud Light again,” a former fan of the brand wrote.
The backlash also saw musician Kid Rock buying and shooting cans of Bud Light while wearing a MAGA hat due to his outrage at Mulvaney receiving a free can.
Dylan Mulvaney’s fans are still defending her corner, however, with an Instagram commenter explaining: “How are you people offended?! Just leave her alone if you don’t like her … How is this an issue to anybody else than to the people themselves?!”
Another simply said: “She’s fit, she’s balanced, she’s athletic, she’s centred, she’s suave, she’s healthy, she’s wealthy, she’s everything.”
How did this story make you feel?
