User:Feimoonchoy/sandbox

Nikita Dragun

About

Nikita Dragun, (also known as Mother of Draguns, NYC Dragun, Dragun, and Nick Dragon), is a famous transgender Youtuber, model, beauty guru, and recently become a brand owner of her makeup line, Dragun Beauty. Her birth name is/was Nicholas and birth gender was male, but has now since done an extended amount of work to reach her full transition to female. She is currently living in Los Angeles, is dating model Michael Yerger.  

Early Years

Nikita was born and raised in Springfield, Virginia, United States of America. She has two sisters and one brother named Allegrah Capri, Taliah Nguyen Marriott and Vincarlo Nguyen.

Her parents are super supportive of her being transgender. Nikita has done many YouTube videos with her siblings, especially her brother a lot. She also has a YouTube video with her parents doing a supportive chat about Nikita being transgender. It is evident that Nikita's family has supported her a lot through her transitional journey.

Rise to Fame

Nikita joined YouTube in 2013, and has never been afraid to be herself with original, sometimes controversial ideas. Her Instagram has become a place of different fashion statements, glamorous makeup and wigs, and the showing off of herself made luxury lifestyle. She is an inspiration, not afraid to be herself, and inspiring so many people every day. She shows others through her actions that it is important to be extraordinary and different, and that no one else's opinion matters but her own. She has since been going to tons of fashion shows, launches and premieres since rising in fame, and most recently modeled in the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) DEBUT runway show along other YouTube stars on Friday April 5th, 2019.

YouTube Channel

As of April 2019, Nikita Dragun has over 2.1 million subscribers on her channel. She has used her YouTube platform to express her every important value and make the world more inclusive with her transgender representational content. A YouTuber such as Nikita Dragun would be described as someone who regularly broadcast videos to the YouTube audience.  The combination of “technical aspects of youth as media creators with social aspects of the net workers, YouTube offers a participatory culture in which to develop, interact, and learn. Nikita through this articulates the developing of identity, levels of contribution matter, and how they feel socially connected to peers within the community. This is what makes her successful, and continues to do so.

Transition Story

Nikita Dragun first announced she was transgender to the public with her YouTube video published on Dec 28, 2015, explaining everything she felt and has been going through since an early age and her personal experience of knowing she is transgender. She takes her subscribers through her transition process by continuing to upload YouTube videos about it, such as “6 Month Hormone Update”, her “Facial Plastic Surgery Story” and her “Breast Augmentation Story” among many others. Nikita has also used the platform to discuss her struggles she has faced as a transgender woman like her video on “Being Forced to Use the Men’s Washroom” or her “Being Kicked Out Because I’m Transgender.” The extent of negative attitudes and discrimination against trans persons is suggestive there is also a substantial minority of respondents had experienced intimidation, harassment, and violence in public places, Nikita is just on of many transgenders who face these intimidation and violence in daily life, but here ability to open up and talk about it is what makes her a great role model in the community. Nikita’s preferred pronouns are she/her/me. All transgender identities emerge within one of four modes of transgendering: those of migrating, oscillating, negating, and ‘transcending.

Dragun Beauty

Dragun Beauty is makeup brand created by Nikita Dragun that tailors to everyone, no matter who or what they look like. It is marketed as the first transgender-owned beauty company, for not just trans people, but for all kinds alike. Her first launch will be the Dragun Egg TRANSformation Kit which will retail $55 for both the products together. This includes two featured products, the Dragun Fire Skin Perfecting Potion ($25 separately), which is a universal color corrector. The other product is the Dragun Heart Transformation Face Powder ($35 separately). Both these products are certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA. She markets that the products work for ALL skin tones, which is a large claim to be making in the beauty industry. Her new line seems to be doing incredible work, with two original style products entering the market is a great step in the right direction for her. She really has made a safe and diverse line that we can trust. The website and products officially launched for purchase on March 25, 2019 and of course they sold out fast within the day! She got tons of positive response from people in the makeup community like Manny MUA, Lara Lee, James Charles, Bretman Rock, Nikkie Tutorials, Tati Westbrook and Patrick Star, plus many others, which helped her launch day be so successful!

Controversies

Response to the Victoria's Secret Transgender Comment

On the day of the 2018 Victoria Secret Fashion Show, Vogue released an interview with Ed Razek, Victoria’s Secret chief marketing officer. When asked if he would ever include transgender or plus-size models in the show, he responded with “I don’t think we should. Our show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special.” The problem with this idea of only a certain body type, gender, and/or color being a fantasy suggests that every other body is not a fantasy or something to fantasize about. This is extremely damaging to the progress of accepting all of the other wide ranges of body types & shapes that are out there, being even more damaging to developing youth and younger generations. The article spoke of how “progress gets made, and part of what’s happened in our show is that the girls have just continued to get more physically fit. We don’t tell them to; they compete with one another and they work hard, they work in pairs, they work in threes. Many of them work out at the same gyms; they have complex routines. They shouldn’t have to apologize for that.” To say that they are not forced or told to continue becoming as fit as possible is sad, and there’s no reason as to why these models wouldn’t feel pressured to be absolutely perfect. If it’s not Ed Razek telling them, it’s the insane standards that come with being an Angel in the show that are.

This inspired Nikita to not only respond, but respond powerfully and bigger than a hate comment. In response to Razak statement of transgender woman not being about to obtain or create the “certain fantasy” she creates a whole video of her as an “Angel” serving a major fantasy. The point was to show that she is in fact a fantasy, being transgender will not stop that. This is something that went viral, and caused her to gain a lot of followers, this goes to show that many were on board with her defying actions. Sociocultural norms affect women’s self-image by increasing the degree they base their self-worth on physical appearance. This is why comments like fatphobia are dangerous. Fat phobia is the processes that seeks a precarious boundary between being fat and not being fat. People who are not fat fear becoming fat, so that when I look into the mirror I see a thin/skinny person, but as soon as I walk away I imagine myself as fat.

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Strahan, E. J., Lafrance, A., Wilson, A. E., Ethier, N., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2008). Victoria's dirty secret: How sociocultural norms influence adolescent girls and women. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(2), 288-301.

Sykes, H., & McPhail, D. (2008). Unbearable lessons: Contesting fat phobia in physical education. Sociology of Sport Journal, 25(1), 66-96.