Alice Cooper dropped by cosmetics company over trans comments

Shock rocker Alice Cooper has been dropped by a cosmetics company after he gave his opinion on care being provided to trans people.

Vampyre Cosmetics have pulled out of a planned collaboration with Cooper after he told Stereogum he finds the discourse surrounding trans rights "absurd" and thinks much of it is a "fad".

In a statement, Vampyre said: "In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will no longer be doing a makeup collaboration. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded."

In the interview, Cooper was asked what he thought of recent comments by some of his contemporaries, especially as "someone who played around with gender expectations early on."

He gave a lengthy reply, saying: "I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but 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. 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.'

"I think that’s so confusing to a kid. It’s even confusing to a teenager. You’re still trying to find your identity, and yet here’s this thing going on, saying, 'Yeah, but you can be anything you want. You can be a cat if you want to be.

"I mean, if you identify as a tree… And I’m going, 'Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?' It’s so absurd, that it’s gone now to the point of absurdity."

Cooper continued: "Well, I can see somebody really taking advantage of this, though. A guy can walk into a woman’s bathroom at any time and just say, 'I just feel like I’m a woman today' and have the time of his life in there.

"He’s just taking advantage of that situation. Well, that’s going to happen. Somebody’s going to get raped, and the guy’s going to say, 'Well, I felt like a girl that day, and then I felt like a guy.' Where do you draw this line?"

Cooper and Vampyre Cosmetics announced the now cancelled collaboration earlier in August.