Elon Musk’s daughter calls him an absentee father
Ready to do some Musk math? Let’s get started. There are 24 hours in a day, and even the most superhuman among us needs to spend a few of those hours sleeping. Elon Musk is just a human, unless he’s found a way to clone himself. He has at least 12 children with multiple women. His first child tragically died as a baby, and while several of his children are now adults, he has six children under the age of five. He also runs six companies and oversees over 130,000 people around the world. And he spends a disproportionate amount of his life tweeting. Given this hectic lifestyle, how on earth does this billionaire manage to find time for his kids?
The short answer is: he doesn’t think so. Basic math should tell you that, and Musk’s own daughter says so, too. On Thursday, the billionaire’s estranged, 20-year-old transgender daughter, Vivian Wilson, painted a deeply disturbing picture of Musk as a father in a thread. (The thread is Meta’s version of Twitter.) Wilson said her father was never around when she was growing up, and when he was, he relentlessly harassed her for her “femininity and queerness.” Wilson’s mother, Justine Wilson, 20, who divorced Musk in 2008, elaborated on these comments in an interview with NBC News, calling her father “inconsiderate and narcissistic.”
Wilson, who legally dropped the Musk name in 2022, has rarely made public appearances until now. But she’s speaking out because her father gave her few other options. In a recent rambling interview with right-wing professor and beef lover Jordan Peterson, Musk went on a disturbing anti-transgender rant about his daughter. The tech mogul claimed he’d “tricked” Vivienne into gender-reassignment care when she was 16, calling the process “child abuse” and giving his daughter a deadname.
“My son is dead. He was killed by the virus of the awakened mind,” Musk told Peterson. This would be a terrible thing to say under any circumstances, but it’s even more terrifying considering Musk has actually experienced the death of a child. His first son, Nevada, died at just 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome.
Musk didn’t stop there. After his interview with Peterson, he hopped on X to “tell” his 191 million followers that his daughter was “born gay and slightly autistic, two traits that contribute to gender dysphoria.” He added that he knew Wilson was gay because at age 4, she loved musicals and would pick out jackets for him and call him “nice.” All of which are, of course, gay traits! Musk ended by saying, “He wasn’t a girl.”
Wilson later fired back on the thread, calling the stories about the clothes and the musical fabricated. “This whole story is completely fabricated for a reason: he doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he wasn’t there,” Wilson said. “I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype,” she continued. “I think it says a lot about how he views queer people and kids in general.”
That’s true, but he doesn’t say much beyond what we already know. Musk, who manages a highly influential media platform, is well known for promoting anti-transgender views. He also likes to share parenting advice with the world. One of the billionaire’s favorite talking points is that there is a birth rate crisis and everyone needs to have more kids. He’s a bit vague on how someone who doesn’t have billions of dollars in the bank is going to take care of these kids. Maybe he doesn’t care about them and is just interested in making more capitalist shells.
This obsession with having babies and apparent disdain for caring for children is widespread on the right. Republicans want to force women to give birth but don’t seem to care about the welfare of their children after they leave the womb. There’s plenty of research showing that states with the strictest abortion laws have the weakest maternal support.
You know what this episode talks about a lot? It’s how little society expects from fathers. It pisses me off so much that so many people don’t seem to care at all when Musk goes to all the effort to have a child and barely has time to spend with him. Can you imagine if he was a woman? He would be constantly attacked for not being there for his kids. He would be constantly criticized for being a bad mother. People always expect women to put their kids first. Things are slowly changing, but society has a much lower standard for fathers. People are ready to praise him as Father of the Year just for changing a diaper every once in a while.
The debate over childfree women who love cats remains strong
Last week, this newsletter covered JD Vance’s “childfree cat lady” comments, which have since become even more topical. Jennifer Aniston has said she hopes Vance’s daughter won’t need IVF in the future. Kamala Harris’ daughter-in-law, Ella Emhoff, also spoke out, saying, “I love all three of my parents.” On Friday, Vance defended his comments, calling them “sarcastic.”
JD Vance calls for ‘federal action’ to stop women from traveling for abortions
It’s unfortunate that Donald Trump’s running mate is back in the news after some nasty comments about women have resurfaced.
Rumors that J.D. Vance had sexual relations with furniture have been greatly exaggerated
But they’re all over the Internet: The Associated Press ran a fact-check about the Internet jokes, then abruptly retracted it.
American doctor who served in Gaza says the actual death toll is much higher than reported
“We cannot forget the unbearable scenes of brutality against women and children that we witnessed ourselves,” wrote an eight-page letter to Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Kamala Harris from dozens of US medical workers who have been in Gaza. “The death toll from this conflict may already exceed 92,000, a staggering 4.2% of Gaza’s population,” they wrote. The letter also described their experience of seeing children deliberately shot in the head. Meanwhile, the man behind these horrors, Benjamin Netanyahu, received a standing ovation in Congress on Wednesday.
Sonia Massey, who was murdered after calling police for help, deserved better.
Not only did an officer shoot Massey in the face, but someone at the scene falsely reported that Massey’s wounds were self-inflicted. “Massey’s death is a sombre reminder that black people continue to be stalked like prey in their own homes,” Tayo Bello wrote.
Iowa’s strict abortion ban goes into effect Monday
The law, which bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, was passed last year but was blocked by a judge from going into effect. The injunction has now been lifted.
Ice baths, rare steaks, and no masturbation: Was Walt Whitman the first wellness influencer?
This work is pure poetry.
Sweaty women of the world, unite!
“In an era of rising global temperatures, we need to let go of our fear of sweat,” says The Guardian’s Nell Frizzell.
A Week in Patriarchy
A new study has found that dogs can smell when their owners are stressed. Sorry to all you pet owners, but if you’re anxious, your dog will be sad too. So, it’s best not to read the news when your dog is around, or else he and you will both be barking like crazy.
