Elon Musk: Sex Symbol

Elon Musk is many things. He is the CEO of Space X (the group trying to put life on Mars and privatize space travel) and the creative director of Tesla (the company giving sleek, electric cars to sleek, rich men). He is an inventor and investor; a probable mad genius who believes we are living in an AI simulation. Forbes listed Musk as the 53rd richest person in the world, with a whopping net worth of 20.8 billion dollars. A mogul of progressive infrastructure and future-building technology, he may be the innovator of our time. 

I’ve been following the man on Instagram for a few years. @elonmusk, since 2012, has been posting updates on new inventions and endeavors, shots of beautiful rocket launches and strikingly shiny cars, and many pictures showing the beauty of space and earth. All of these ‘grams are on brand with Elon Musk’s efforts to make a brighter, better, and cooler future. 

However, I recently have noticed a disturbing trend: Elon Musk is shifting his brand. 

Pictures of Musk doing cool things have replaced pictures of his cool inventions; his captions have gotten more personal and braggadocios. During SpaceX’s most recent rocket launch, he posted this photo in lieu of the actual rocket:

Look at that pose! The arms around the head, showing off those biceps. The tight black shirt, also to show off those biceps. That sweet, yet knowing smile. To demonstrate that this isn’t just me being weirdly turned on by Elon Musk, let’s delve into the comments: 

 

And all of these aroused people are playing right into his dextrous inventor hands! For whatever reason, Musk not only wants people to respect him as a powerful and intelligent figure, but he also wants people to be attracted to him.

 

Why does this man, one of the most powerful and rich men on the planet(s), feel the need to make his followers horny? Musk is not a boy band member or youtuber–someone whose livelihood depends almost entirely on attracting their fanbase. No, Elon Musk should want to appeal to investors, tech nerds, and space fanatics. He advertises products that don’t require any sort of sex appeal – what’s the deal?

Elon (I feel that we can be on a first-name basis after how much of himself he’s exposed to me) posts a lot of full-body pics of him wearing suits in beautiful foreign locations, much like a Buxton kid might post. It’s the sort of cockiness that comes with having more than a few million dollars (in his case, it’s a cool 20 billion). The posts focused on himself and his rocking bod may just reveal a massive ego spurred by a massive wallet. 

To be fair, When you’re a CEO of  multiple massive companies, I suppose you might start to care about how you look. Being confident in your looks helps being confident in leadership! That’s a respectable desire! 

But Elon, you’ve taken it too far. You don’t need to add “sexy man” to your long list of titles. You’ve got enough cred for starting PayPal. You especially don’t need to be captioning your pictures like this:

Perhaps, as a man who looks toward the future, Elon understands the growing trend of the thirst-trap. He sees that the way to get followers on Instagram is to turn them on. Who cares what the method is, as long as you get the numbers, right? 

I’m just upset that people are calling him Daddy Musk. 

 

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