It is surprising to no one that makeup companies are out at the front of the transgender trend. What could be more in the interest of Ulta Beauty’s bottom line than selling makeup to boys? But when Ulta tweeted out a snippet from its podcast on October 13, in which a man in a Jackie O-style bouffant and a minidress declared victory over transgender stereotypes, something became clear: “I want to be a mom one day, and I absolutely can,” said aspiring Broadway actor turned influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Which was to say, I want what all the other girls have, and I can have it. No longer just a home for the confused and the perverted (and the Extremely Online, as Katherine Dee has documented), what became clear in this short snippet is that transgenderism is also, increasingly, a home for another form of social outcast: the opportunistic male.
The podcast episode is the second in a new series by Ulta called The Beauty Of… Other episodes include interviews with a female powerlifter and “The Beauty of Fatness,” featuring an overweight woman with a master’s degree in sexuality studies. Episode 2, “The Beauty of Girlhood,” features Mulvaney alongside host David Lopez, who sports his own wig and high heels for the occasion (in other episodes, he presents as a male). The two gush about girlhood, and Mulvaney’s rapid rise to internet fame after he posted a TikTok entitled “Day 1 of Being A Girl.” What started out as internet comedy became a wildly popular, and sometimes serious, series in which Mulvaney chronicles his life as a transitioning male.
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