A cosmetics company has cancelled its collaboration with Alice Cooper after he described being transgender as “a fad”.
The shock rock star, 75, recently worked with make-up brand Vampyre Cosmetics on a new collaboration, but has since been dropped after controversial comments made in a recent interview.
As Billboard reports, the make-up products, which were announced on August 14, have also now been dropped from the website.
The rock artist was speaking in a recent interview with Stereogum when he said that he believed things had “gone now to the point of absurdity”.
The musician also said that he was “understanding that there are cases of transgender”, but that “I’m afraid that it’s also a fad, and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that”.
Now, Vampyre Cosmetics has shared a statement to say it will no longer be working with Cooper.
“In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will noLonger be doing a makeup collaboration,” the brand wrote in an Instagram post. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded.
On Cooper’s website, a description said the collection “will exude Alice’s style and feature guitar and amp shaped makeup palettes, microphone styled lipsticks and a major highlight for Alice Cooper and makeup fans to look forward to is a new version of Alice Cooper’s iconic Whiplash mascara. A unisex product originally created to “Liberate Your Eyes.””
In the recent interview in question, Cooper was asked about his thoughts on comments made by his “theatrical” rock peers about gender identity – including KISS’ Paul Stanley, who called children’s gender reassignment surgery “a sad and dangerous fad”, and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, who backed Stanley’s comment. Stanley later walked back his statement, while Snider denied transphobia accusations.
At one point in the conversation, Cooper said of gender-affirming care: “I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be’.”
Elsewhere, he said: “A lot of times, I look at it this way, the logical way: If you have these genitals, you’re a boy. If you have those genitals, you’re a girl. There’s a difference between ‘I am a male who is a female, or I’m a female that’s a male’ and wanting to be a female. You were born a male. Okay, so that’s a fact. You have these things here.”
The musician’s comments were hugely at odds with Nick Cave’s recent words on the transgender community, who said: “I love my trans fans fully and wish them the best.”
Hozier, meanwhile, stated that he feels the LGBTQ+ community are being targeted as scapegoats, sharing: “I think we’re witnessing that increasingly with the LGBTQ+ community and particularly the trans community.”