Dylan Mulvaney is a popular trans-gender influencer who is commonly known on a social media platform called TikTok for posting a sequence of videos about her transition to a woman. She came out with a music video called “Days of Girlhood” on March 13. People have been bashing her for the lyrics in her song. Her lyrics and word choices make it seem that being a girl is just being a shopaholic and flirting with men. The lyrics enraged a large portion of the internet. 

In the song, one verse says, “Thursday, had a walk of shame,” this lyric portrays that women often have one night stands or hookups. 

When the song was first released, Mulvaney uploaded a TikTok with part of the music video. Comments said things like:

“Well I had a different girlhood apparently,” user @babyxlakes said.

“so unrelatable!! Thanks!!” @jillc.1 said.

“Well…it’s sound!” @ale_jandro067 said.

While there were thousands of hate comments under her video, there were a few people encouraging her and @tai.is.phrog saying “…I actually like it guys. I think it’s fun and jumpy and silly,” which is a comment that got over 200 likes. 

The song is disrespectful towards women and femininity as it strongly relies on stereotypes and misconceptions. Instead of Mulvaney saying that her song is about “girlhood” as a whole, we think it would be more appropriate if her lyrics made it clear that she’s describing her experience as a woman. We have no hate towards Mulvaney for being a trans-gender woman but we think she should have educated herself better on women’s history with stereotypes and how to stand up against stereotypes and misconceptions about women before she made the song. The lyrics are the opposite of the ‘Barbie’ movie which represents and describes what an accurate girlhood looks like and the reality of being a woman. 

Many women are upset since Mulvaney’s portrayal of girlhood relied too heavily on women stereotypes, with lyrics referring to shopping, flirting for drinks, and one-night stands. Which is not what true girlhood is. Mulvaney clearly does not share the same experiences that the majority of women do. The influencer made a video recently addressing the song and everyone hating on it.

 “This was like a fun project to sort of celebrate the early days of transition,” said Mulvaney.

Even with Mulvaney claiming the song was her representation of her experience as a trans-gender woman, the lyrics do not correspond with it being her girlhood. The lyrics make it sound like that’s what girlhood is all about, which it is not. It’s sad to see women who feed into stereotypes and make it easier for women to be overlooked and shamed. Especially with a lot of children and young teens on TikTok and YouTube, the song can potentially make young girls feel as though that’s what their future holds for them.

When asked about Mulvaney and the song, many students responded with “Who is that?” or “She made a song?” Everyone is on a different side of Tiktok which makes it hard to get everybody in on something.