It started, as so many stushies do, with harsh words over a beer. That’s part one.

Now it has drawn in a major sportswear brand, a handful of top Olympians and a small army of culture warriors, all knocking lumps out of each other on the airwaves, on websites and on social media channels. That’s part two.

The beer in question is Bud Light, a low(ish) calorie tipple from US brewing giant Anheuser-Busch. As America’s favourite lager it’s the one clutched by millions of Trump supporters as they pre-load en route to a MAGA rally somewhere. Those facts are probably not unconnected.

Here’s what happened. Bud Light recently teamed up with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney in what’s known as a paid partnership – basically a sponsorship deal geared towards social media platforms. This one involves Mulvaney promoting the brand to her followers online and allowing her image to be used on a can.

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Cue mayhem. On Tuesday, Republican-supporting country music rapper Kid Rock responded to this apparent outrage by donning a MAGA cap and filming himself shooting four cases of Bud Light with an assault rifle. “F*** you, Bud Light” he says at the end of the video, which has had over 49 million views. This, let me remind you, is the man who once said: “I don’t think crazy people should have guns.”

If you’ve never heard of Dylan Mulvaney and are scratching your head as to why an “ageing phony red-neck musician” (Rolling Stone’s description) would choose to exercise his second amendment right and take up arms against a few cases of beer, it’s because Mulvaney is trans. Adding one to one and making three, Kid Rock has decided his beloved beer is now a symbol of trans rights.

He isn’t the only one. “I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider,” tweeted somebody called Travis Tritt, a country music singer and proud NRA member who is clearly cut from the same political cloth as Kid Rock. “I know many other artists who are doing the same.”

Good luck with the boycott, lads. Through its parent company Bud Light is part of the world’s largest brewing conglomerate and as such is a $50 billion concern.

That’s not to say the folks at Bud Light HQ are immune to the sound of gunfire. “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points,” a spokesperson told Fox News which, predictably, has jumped into the brouhaha with mouth open and blinkers on. “From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.”

The personal milestone in question was Mulvaney reaching day 365 in her Days Of Girlhood programme, an ongoing series of daily TikTok videos in which the 26-year-old actor and comedian has been charting her decision to transition gender. She currently has around 10 million followers which, if you’re a major brand looking for some online traction, is a nice round number with lots of zeroes behind it.

Enter Nike which, as Herald readers know, is a lifestyle and sportswear brand as well as the Greek goddess of victory.

In a similar deal and for similar reasons – see the bit about Bud Light wanting to hit “various demographics” – Nike has inked a paid partnership agreement with Mulvaney. And so, in between mucking around with cans of Bud Light, Mulvaney has posted one of her typically jocular videos in which she wears Nike branded items. She has posed for photographs too.

The trouble is one of these items is a sports bra. Mulvaney is undergoing hormone treatment but has not yet had gender reassignment surgery. Cue even more mayhem than before.

Anyone can drink beer, of course, trans or otherwise. But the issue of trans women competing in women’s sporting events is a contentious one and the clip has thrown petrol on a fire already blazing brightly and giving off a lot of acrid smoke.

Sure, some sports and their governing bodies have come to a decision on the matter. See last month’s news that the World Athletics Council will ban from elite level competitions those trans female athletes who underwent puberty as a male. Others are edging towards an accommodation, such as separate categories for trans athletes and sportspeople. But these changes are piecemeal and incremental and do little to detoxify the issue. It doesn’t help that commentators on the right of the political spectrum seize on any opportunity to turn it into a war on woke-ism.

Does it matter that a trans woman with 10 million followers becomes one of a thousand or so influencers Nike works with to promote its brands? In and of itself, no. But should the requirement of advertisers to show a variety of female body types be extended to trans women? Nike clearly think so but other don’t. And does it matter then that some elite female athletes or former athletes object? Yes it does. And there’s the conundrum.

Swimmer Sharron Davies is one vocal opponent. A three-time Olympian and a silver medal winner, Davies gave her opinion on Mulvaney’s Nike deal to Dan Wootton in an interview on right-leaning broadcaster GB News.

“It’s so frustrating,” she said. “We take two steps forward with World Athletics and Swim England protecting women’s sport and then Nike does this … The ad feels like a parody of what women are. In the past it was always seen as an insult to say, ‘run like a girl’ and here we’ve got someone behaving in a way that’s very un-sporty and very unathletic and it’s so frustrating when only one per cent of USA sponsorship dollar goes to females in sport. That Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth.”

Her views are echoed by another former Olympian, Caitlyn Jenner, who is also a trans woman. “[I]t is a shame to see such an iconic American company go so woke!” she tweeted. “We can be inclusive but not at the expense of the mass majority of people.”

For Nike, ironically, it might be good timing. Yes, on the one hand there are Olympians now talking openly about boycotts of Nike products. But on the other there’s a new film called Air, directed by Ben Affleck and starring him and Matt Damon. It tells the story of how Nike teamed up with a then up-and-coming young basketball player called Michael Jordan to create a line of trainers – the iconic Air Jordan shoes. This isn’t a bad time for Nike to be in the headlines, in other words.

Until now, the world’s most famous Nike sports bra was the one worn by England footballer Chloe Kelly in the Women’s EURO 2022 final against Germany. It was displayed when she whipped off her top following her dramatic extra-time winner. An inspiring moment marked by an equally famous and inspiring image. This may offer little solace to Sharron Davies, but one thing’s for sure: Mulvaney’s entry into the canon will be forgotten long before Kelly’s.