New controversy in the United States, but this time it includes the fashion and sports sectors. Influencer, TikToker, and trans activist Dylan Mulvaney recently shared a social media post announcing a paid collaboration with Nike. In it you can see how the young woman wears tights and a sports bra from the brand, which has outraged many users of social networks and recognized sports faces – some, even trans – and the reason would be, according to media such as the Daily Mail, that the young woman identifies as a woman, but has not undergone sex change surgery.
In the publication of the young woman, 26 years old and born in San Diego (California), you can read a large number of messages of support, although also against collaboration. One of those in charge of leading the boycott of Nike has been the British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies. This swimmer, who won silver at the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980, assures that this decision by Nike represents a “step back” for women’s sport.
“Dylan is advertising sports bras when there’s nothing to put in a sports bra, when in fact it’s very important that women get the right support when doing sports,” Davies told GB News. “Women are being treated with total disdain right now, particularly in the world of sports where physiology makes a big difference,” she said.
“It’s very frustrating. We take two steps forward with World Athletics and Swim England protecting women’s sport and then Nike does this,” he said. The athlete was referring to the decision made last year by the International Swimming Federation, which restricted the participation of transgender swimmers in women’s competitions.
Caitlyn Jenner, who was also an Olympic medalist in athletics at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, – and who also made the gender transition in 2015 and is also popular for having been a stepfather to the Kardashians – has assured that the association of Nike with the trans influencer is “an outrage”. Jenner has stressed a series of tweets that for her, who grew up “admiring” Phil Knight -the founder of Nike- it is “a shame” to see how such an emblematic company acts like this.
“We can be inclusive, but not at the expense of the majority of people, and you can have some decency while still being inclusive. This is a scandal,” Jenner said. And it is that, in her opinion, inclusivity goes through “stop trying to erase women.” “The differences between men and women are real and they are a good thing. Nor does that make trans people a bad thing,” said the former athlete through her official Twitter account.
As we said, the influencer’s publication also collects negative comments from anonymous faces. “Imagine if these brands supported deserving women who have actually lived as women their entire lives?” replies one user. However, you can also see a large number of messages of support. “She’s fit, she’s balanced, she’s athletic, she’s focused, she’s smooth, she’s healthy, she’s rich, she’s everything,” one user wrote. “How are they offended?! Just leave her alone if you don’t like her looks, how does this affect all ‘women’? I don’t get it. Seriously, I don’t,” another user expressed.
