This is just the worst. In time for Father’s Day, Elon Musk’s daughter filed a petition to change her name and gender.
Elon Musk's 18-year-old daughter has filed to legally change her name to confirm to her gender identity.
The official reason given: "Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form." pic.twitter.com/t04P9m8fEI
— KnowNothing (@KnowNothingTV) June 20, 2022
I am definitely not a Musk fan, but I don’t wish this kind of pain on anyone. Her explanation for why she’s doing this is a knife right to the heart.
He’s the richest man in the world, and that is a statement that demonstrates he’s a total failure in the game of life — he can’t even win the respect of the child he presumably raised from infancy. I’m just saying that if one of my kids said something like that to me I would be shattered and would seriously be questioning my whole life. Maybe Musk is so unconscionable and so disinterested in his children that he is unperturbed by such a statement, but I can’t imagine myself feeling that way, so maybe I’m reading my own values into him, but man, I couldn’t help but feel some deep pain on reading that.
Now I’ve gone and made myself vulnerable to my kids, handed them a knife and told them exactly where to stick it, but I’m fairly confident that they wouldn’t do me that kind of harm.
Distantly related, but weird: I did not know that Musk’s former partner, Grimes, had a Minnesota connection.
Back in 2009, when Grimes was just a 21-year-old college student eager to go on an adventure, she paired up with 23-year-old William Gratz, who she met at school in Montreal, according to a 2009 Star Tribune report. The couple packed chickens, a sewing machine, and 20 pounds of potatoes into a houseboat that they built from scratch. They named the boat Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and called themselves Veruschka and Zelda Xox, seemingly with the goal of taking off on a journey worthy of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” a book they packed for the ride but had not read.
They had spent more than a month constructing the 20-foot boat on a friend’s property in Bemidji, Minnesota, from where they hauled it to Minneapolis. They installed “accordion folding doors, glass windows, pink shutters and painted murals in black, white and red paint of fantastical creatures on the sides. Strangers gave them bikes, a mattress and the sewing machine (powered by on-board batteries).”
According to the Star Tribune report, they intended to sail from Minneapolis to New Orleans, but their journey ended up being only a few miles downstream after boat engine troubles and run-ins with law enforcement…
Okaaay. They hadn’t read the book, and their trip only lasted a few days. What a strange story…
“The official reason given: “Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
Ouch! I wonder if the statement is directly linked…as in did Elon give her a hard time over her gender identity? Did he basically throw her out and disown her? So far aside from the richness of the people, this kind of story is all to familiar after all…anyone heard from HIM on the subject? Maybe he’s not that broken up over it…proving her point. Dunno.
He brought it on himself. His kids didn’t chose to have him as a father, and as a result should be left alone from public discourse unless they choose to wade into it themselves, but Elon chose to fully embrace the transphobic extremist right wing ideology. This is him reaping what he sows, and if he hurts as a result, it’s wholly a self-inflicted wound. That he’ll blame on the gays and trans and feminists and #metoo, because that’s the kind of walking manifestation of 4chan that he’s always been.
Um…are you sure this is for real? Is there any corroboration from anyone else yet? So far at least, I’m not inclined to just run with anything put out by someone named “KnowNothingTV.”
Whatever.
Elon Musk has 8 children by several different women.
Given how busy he is with Tesla, Space X, etc.., I doubt he had a whole lot of contact and involvement with his children. Especially the older children since he is divorced and moved on.
I can’t imagine someone as wealthy and powerful is a particularly kind person (if he had been kind and ethical, he wouldn’t amass so much wealth….). Poor kids.
As raven notes, this seems unlikely.
Raging Bee @ #3, WP links to Reuters – “Elon Musk’s child seeks name change to sever ties with father.”
@ 3. Raging Bee : This news report by Reuters sems to confirm it :
https://www.reuters.com/world/elon-musks-child-seeks-name-change-sever-ties-with-father-2022-06-21/
My google-fu finds this is also reported by the India times ( WARNING / NOTE : Their article gives both her dead and chosen names.) Google also saying this is reported in 7 News (8 hrs ago) BuzzFeed news, NBC news, Sky, etc .. Wilst the Aussie ABC news site has this story :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-21/elon-musks-teenager-files-for-name-change-distance-from-father/101170658
which does NOT list the dead name or chosen name of Musk’s daughter.
Incidentally, the Aussie ABC news also has this bad news story where Musk is concerned too :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-18/spacex-elon-musk-fires-small-group-behind-letter/101164078
Which, yeah, what a douche and nasty thing thing to do.
@4 raven.
Yes exactly. There a lot of guys like that who don’t give a flying fucking shit about the kids they created and they are busying plotting how to bang the next hottie, make a lot of money or whatever they think is cool and fun. I am not surprised in the slighted that Must belongs to that category of absolutely worthless men.
Elon Musk has multiple kids by multiple women. He doesn’t have a good relationship with any of the women as far as I can tell, why would you assume he has ANY relationship with the kids, let alone a good one?
His transgender daughter is 18. That tells me that Musk had the better part of two decades to develop a good (or any) relationship with his daughter. Apparently he didn’t. (Although I imagine the transphobic statements, comments and tweets probably aren’t helping.)
That’s on HIM, not his daughter.
Kids don’t love you unconditionally forever.
There is a small window when they are young, in which you are either there or you aren’t. If you are present and invested, you have a chance at building a lasting relationship. If not? Then you are largely relegated to “DNA donor” and should not be terribly surprised when your kids don’t have time for a relationship with YOU when they–and you–are older.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow
Elon Musk is a wire FATHER.
Somehow, I doubt the timing of the transgender daughter’s petition was an accident.
As far as sticking a knife in her father’s heart with her petition, Elon would have to have a heart first.
Elongated Muskrat has multiple kids. He’s gonna shrug this off.
It’s seven children with just two women. And one set was twins and another triplets so it’s four pregnancies. He was married to the mother of the child involved (and her four full siblings) and in a relationship (maybe married? maybe not? ) with the mother of the other two children.
….. Hmm, I’m trying to remember what my sister wrote when she legally changed her name. It was something like “I feel no familial connection with that name” or something similar. Perhaps it wasn’t as blunt as this woman’s but it was in essence the same thing.
I don’t know if Elon Musk is a narcissist/has narcissistic traits but my mother does.
Trust me, there’s no knife in the heart when you disconnect from them due to their shitty behaviour, they blame you.
Quoting PZ in the OP:
“I’m just saying that if one of my kids said something like that to me I would be shattered and would seriously be questioning my whole life.”
Same here. You’d think so wouldn’t you? But no. Gaslighting, invalidation, projection, lies, triangulation…these things? Yes. Reconsidering a simple thing? Nope.
Like I said, I have no idea of Musk exhibits these traits, but I’d bet sterling to shite this will be his reaction.
Louis
Elon is a tech-bro, with massive amounts of cosmetic surgeries and hair transplants.
A shallow puddle of a human being can’t be bothered to think about other peoples feelings, not even his own children. He thinks he can just buy whatever he needs, but you can’t buy love. You must earn it.
As far as the Grimes houseboat debacle is concerned, clearly they hadn’t read the book or ever been in a boat.
You can’t recreate Huck Finns adventure on the Mississippi, which has dangerous currents, multiple lock & dams, and commercial barge traffic that is highly hazardous to small 20’ foot boats that don’t have a working motor.
I’ve spent a lot of time in a boat on the river, and would never consider a boat built from trash a river worthy vessel, much less one that could manage to travel the whole river from North Minneapolis to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mississippi River now has heavy barge traffic and lots of other hazards – I’d count it as a Very Good Thing that unprepared amateurs with an inferior craft didn’t get into the thick of it.
the reaction expressed in the forms and the observations by the commenters here echos what I have witnessed in my life and times. I have known men who have fathered children but have no idea how to “father” children I had one myself. It just is one of the unfortunate realities of life these days I guess.
on house boat rafts since the river system in the middle of the country is such a busy commercial artery are there not lots of regulations about what kind of craft is allowed and some required registration and inspections?
Unclefrogy
The Land of 10,000 lakes has many, many boaters who need to have a current boat license and a whole checklist of equipment like life jackets and paddles in their boat at all times.
If you plan to boat on the river you also need running lights, and an understanding of barge traffic. Barges have the right of way in the main channel, and it is shockingly easy for the front end of the barge to appear out of the darkness long before you hear the towboat coming. They can’t stop, (assuming they can even see you) they cannot see around bends, and small craft need to stay out of their path and avoid their wakes.
SC & SteveOR: thanx for the Reuters cite.
Tethys: In addition to all their boat troubles, I wonder what sort of “run-ins with law enforcement” they had, in only the first few miles of their journey…
From the Reuters article:
Musk has weighed in on the issue of transgender people choosing their preferred pronouns, tweeting in 2020, “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.”
First, “don’t misgender people” isn’t an “esthetic” issue, it’s MANNERS. Calling such a basic and longstanding rule of manners and “esthetic nightmare” only shows what a clueless uncaring twit Musk really is.
And second, you cannot in any way claim you “absolutely support trans” when you’re explicitly supporting a party that absolutely opposes trans anything, even down to the mere admission that trans people exist.
Given how Grimes’ life went later I think she wishes her houseboat journey had been more successful. She would never have met the king of muskrats, probably. Maybe become an author or something, run a jazz bar in New Orleans, hell, in some other world in the multiverse she probably is doing just that and feeling sorry or maybe contemptuous for the women who allow themselves to be attracted to guys based on their wealth or power.
Yea, mebbe she shoulda read Huckleberry Finn. There’s a lot in that book about people putting on airs and stuff…
Grimes’ life seems to be doing OK.
I’d mostly seen Musk’s recent foray into outright transphobia and as being about Grimes reportedly hooking up with Chelsea Manning, but his daughter transitioning makes more sense as a trigger for letting his asshole flag fly.
He seems to have lost his techno-optimism lately and is transitioning into being a boring old rich right-wing asshole.
I was recently struck by what a dipshit the “richest man in the world” looks like wearing a black cowboy hat, sunglasses, and a neon Texas T-shirt. I’m sure he thinks he looks like a rock star and can pay enough people to confirm it for him.
Pity? Hahahahahaha. No, not for that, and not for his daughter’s legal action. I mean gimme a break. I don’t even hate Elon Musk, but he’s a fucking clown and sufficiently insulated from the consequences that my limited reserve of pity can be much better spent.
… he’s a total failure in the game of life …
Aw c’mon: at least Musk co-produced a kid with some moral and esthetic standards (unlike, e.g., a certain ex-president).