The primary transgender woman to take home the Miss Netherlands crown called the response and boycotts that followed Dylan Mulvaney’s disastrous partnership with Bud Light “terrible”.
“I feel it’s really concerning the girl losing her confidence… and judging her for being herself. I feel it’s awful,” said 22-year-old beauty pageant winner Rikkie Valerie Kollé. Newsweek.
“They see us as monsters,” added Kollé, who began her transition from male to female at 16.
“My each day chat messages [direct messages] they’re stuffed with people wishing me dead. Wishing me death and inspiring me to commit suicide.
Kollé added that she was “sad” about what happened after Mulvaney – who transitioned from male to female in March 2021 – shared a series of Instagram posts on April 1 of her taking a bubble bath with Bud Light in hand, and one other shares a custom can that the beer brand sent her with her face to have a good time “one year of girlhood.”
Nevertheless, Kollé doesn’t let the hate get to her as she prepares for an additional potential historic Miss Universe win on January 14, 2024.
“All I need to say to the haters is ‘thanks’ since you’re giving me a much bigger platform than I can imagine,” she told Newsweek.
Mulvaney, meanwhile, was on the lookout for a change of scenery in Peru to “feel protected,” approaching its fourth month of relentless failure after her disastrous marketing campaign with Bud Light — which knocked the beer out of its top spot of recognition and lost $27 billion in market capitalization.
The 26-year-old said she booked a visit to South Africa in a desperate try and “feel something”.
“It is a bit sad that I had to go away my country to feel protected, but it is going to improve eventually,” she added.
The style of culture war that followed the besieged beer scandal has created a tense atmosphere in terms of inclusive promoting, with many believing that brands which have “woken up have gone bankrupt.”
Just this week, the world’s biggest beauty brand, Maybelline, got here under fire for tapping mustachioed, bearded and bald influencer Ryan Vita starring in an Amazon Prime Day ad.
Within the ad, Vita wears full makeup and a beaded beard on her face, while wearing light pink shades of Maybelline’s “Super Stay” liquid lipstick.
Earlier this month, Nadya Okamoto, CEO of “awake” tampon company, August was drawn to social media after she called her customers “menstruators” as an alternative of girls because she claimed her brand was “gender-encompassing” during a interview for CBS Mornings.
Pro-LGBTQ+ corporations’ moves in honor of Pride Month in June also outraged conservatives.
At low-cost retailer Goal, Pride’s “lining-friendly” women’s swimwear and Pride-themed apparel for teenagers and infants particularly annoyed consumers, resulting in a $15 billion loss in market value, prompting the chain to recall some Pride merchandise or move displays further back into stores.
Nevertheless, the LGBTQ community was outraged when Goal pulled back its Pride Month efforts.
At Adidas, the $70 “Pride Swimsuit” appeared within the “women” section of the Adidas website, even though it featured an apparently male model that also had a noticeable bulge within the crotch area.
The accompanying video on the Adidas website shows the model in a one-piece, with the camera zooming in at one point to disclose a strand of hair on her chest extending above her cleavage.
The casting sparked a wave of criticism on social media. “I even have breasts, hips, and I do not need an additional bag of fabric around my labia. I suppose which means this swimsuit is not for me… or most ladies,” one user said tweeted.