PROTECT THE DOLLS: Origin and Impact of a Trans solidarity slogan

*Disclaimer: Đây sẽ là bài blog đầu tiên của Styled To Heal được viết hoàn toàn bằng Tiếng Anh

“Protect the Dolls” is a slogan in support of transgender women that went viral in early 2025. It was first introduced on a simple white T-shirt by American designer Conner Ives during his London Fashion Week show in February 2025. In LGBTQ+ circles, “dolls” is an affectionate slang term for feminine trans women. The phrase thus literally means “protect transgender women”, signaling care and solidarity. The designer and fashion media explain that Ives chose the phrasing at the last minute as a reaction to rising anti-trans sentiment he had observed; he later told the Washington Post that the word “dolls” felt “very familiar” and “approachable”, and explicitly referred to trans women whose rights he saw being “ripped apart” in real time.

Ball Culture Origins of “Dolls”

Within queer communities, calling a trans woman a “doll” has long been a term of praise. Born in the Black and Latinx ballroom scene of 1980s New York, “doll” was used to celebrate hyper-feminine beauty, confidence, and intentional self-construction. As one scholar notes, the doll was “something perfect to be seen and valued for its beauty and intentional construction”. In this way, the word became an in-group code of kinship and empowerment, much like “Friend of Dorothy” once was for gay men. Ballroom icons called each other “Baby Doll,” “Doll Baby,” or simply “Doll”, making the term a badge of belonging and pride.

That history continues to echo today. The affectionate use of “doll” within trans and queer circles affirms courage, appearance, and authenticity. Designer Conner Ives’ “Protect the Dolls” tee draws directly on this legacy, with “dolls” evoking beloved community members whose lives and safety must be defended. As PinkNews reminds us, the word first emerged as “an affirming descriptor of femininity and unrelenting confidence”. To say “protect the dolls” is thus more than a slogan—it is a call to honor ballroom’s fierce sisterhood and to safeguard those most vulnerable within the community.

A Climate of Fear: Anti-Trans Politics in America

That call to protect comes at a perilous time. In the U.S. today, transgender rights are under direct assault. In January 2025, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump declared it official policy that the federal government would recognize “only two genders, male and female”—a blunt reversal of the last decade’s gains. He followed with executive orders telling agencies to ban all programs “promoting gender transition”, barring trans women from women’s prisons and even restricting youth access to hormones. Over the same years, Republican legislatures erupted with hundreds of anti-trans bills: from outlawing gender-affirming care for minors to barring trans students from sports. Human-rights groups report that opponents of LGBTQ+ rights have made anti-trans legislation a partisan litmus test. Even staunch Republican ads have spotlighted trans issues: one campaign smeared a pro-care candidate as “heavy into the transgender world” (Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf) with a veiled threat that “President Trump is for you [the voter], not them [the trans community]”. In this hostile climate—with online hate-fueling policies “to drive transgender people out of public life”—“Protect the Dolls” reads as a defiant antidote. It is both a warning and a promise, acknowledging that trans women (the “dolls”) face unique violence and erasure.

From Runway to Rally: The Conner Ives T-Shirt

Into this storm stepped Conner Ives. A New York–born, London-based designer, Ives had long had trans friends and allies.  On February 23, 2025, at London Fashion Week, he took his bow wearing a plain white T-shirt emblazoned “PROTECT THE DOLLS”. He later told The Washington Post the slogan “felt very topical…coming from a country that is ripping apart these people’s rights”. Ives had literally made the shirt at the last minute: he ironed black letters onto a deadstock tee in his hotel room before the show. But the statement was unmistakable.

Within hours of the show, the design went viral. Pop star Troye Sivan appeared at Coachella in his own “Protect the Dolls” tee, posing backstage with Lorde, Charli XCX and Billie Eilish. Actor Pedro Pascal was photographed in the shirt at his 50th birthday party alongside trans DJ Honey Dijon (Pascal’s own sister, Lux, is trans). Next came photos of Haider Ackermann and Tilda Swinton in the shirt, and Gen-Z idols (Addison Rae, Tate McRae) posting selfies in it. The Guardian reports that in the weeks after Ives’s LFW show, some 5,000 orders came in for the £75 tee—raising roughly £380,000 for Trans Lifeline. Ives joked that he “can’t believe a T‑shirt is the most popular thing I’ve ever made”, but everyone agreed it was working for a purpose.

Even more than raw sales, it is the symbolic power that caught fire. As the Standard observes, the slogan quickly became “a call to arms to protect transgender people”. At LGBTQ rallies and Pride marches in London and elsewhere, activists have scrawled “PROTECT THE DOLLS” on posters and banners, confirming that the phrase has “life beyond T-shirts”. In the U.K., even Labour MP Lisa Nandy was spotted wearing the shirt at a Pride event (sparking social-media buzz). Domestically, supporters see the slogan as an invitation for cis allies to stand guard over trans siblings, to fulfill the promise of solidarity when “rights are being ripped apart”.

Protest on the Chest: Fashion as Activism

Why did this simple garment resonate so widely? In times of crisis, fashion has long functioned as protest. A slogan tee is “essentially wearable journalism,” as one commentator put it—concise, visible, hard to ignore. Trans activist Charlie Craggs (founder of Trans Aid) explains that a stark statement shirt becomes an instant billboard. “Everyone else is wearing a pretty dress”, she told The Guardian. “If you’re wearing a white T-shirt with a few words, everyone in the room is reading it… It’s a clever way of getting the message across really easily”. Indeed, as Craggs notes, the simplicity of “Protect the Dolls” is its strength—“its impact is instant”.

Celebrities playing ally amplify this effect. Vogue writer Nicky Josephine observes that seeing cisgender pop stars and actors don the shirt is “real allyship, there’s nothing performative to it”. Pascal and Sivan have both spoken about the issue beyond the shirt—but here, their mere presence in the tee sent a message. In the age of Instagram and TikTok, that kind of visibility can shift culture. As one trans influencer asked: if celebrities insist we should “protect the dolls,” we must also ask how deeply society values those “dolls,” and whether our institutions do enough to keep them safe.

This slogan T follows in a lineage of activist apparel: from Sylvia Rivera’s badges and AIDS era bandannas to Beyoncé’s statement costumes and John Oliver’s “donate the thing” sweaters, fashion and protest intersect constantly. Designer Henry Holland once quipped that Dior can mass-market a feminist slogan, reducing its shelf‑life to one season. But today Ives’s tee has outlived its own catwalk debut: it has become protest, poetry, lifeline. By raising money and awareness with equal force, it acknowledges that a trans woman’s life is as precious as a porcelain doll—and just as breakable.

In this charged moment, “Protect the Dolls” is more than a fad. It is an heirloom of ballroom resilience and a battleground banner. Like a Mother of a House at a ball, it demands respect: step aside if you can’t handle it. And for the rest of us, it whispers sisterhood: that we watch out for one another.

Bibliography 

Ives, Conner. Interview on Protect the Dolls and Fashion Activism. The Washington Post. (2023).

Cordero, Rosy. “Pedro Pascal’s ‘Protect the Dolls’ Shirt Goes Viral.” Marie Claire. (2023).

Friedman, Vanessa. “When Fashion Speaks: Conner Ives and the Politics of a T-Shirt.” The New York Times. (2023).

Smith, Danyel. “The Ballroom Scene: A History of Survival, Style, and Subversion.” The Guardian. (2020).

Bailey, Marlon M. Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit. University of Michigan Press, 2013.

Gossett, Che, Riley Snorton, & Trap Door Collective. Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility. MIT Press, 2017.

Green, Jamison. “Transgender Identity, Visibility, and Cultural Politics.” Journal of Homosexuality 59(3), 2012.

Human Rights Watch. “Trump’s Legacy of Attacks on Trans Rights.” HRW Report. (2021).

GLAAD. Accelerating Acceptance 2023 Report. GLAAD.org. (2023).

Trans Lifeline. About Us. (n.d.). https://translifeline.org