Elon Musk might be the richest man on Earth, but his sense of humor is pretty poor- something that exposes the ‘boy’s club’ the tech industry still is. In a Tweet from the CEO of SpaceX on the 29th of October, Musk jokingly proposed the introduction of an educational institute called the Texas Institute of Technology and Science.
Now, while several politicians, experts, and celebrities initially thought he was being serious, Musk was simply making a sexist joke. The initials of his ‘school’ would make up the term ‘TITS’. Might go amiss, but a little bit of class could be expected from one of the biggest entrepreneurs of this decade.
Elon Musk’s Tweet Simply Classless and Tasteless.
Interestingly, someone also suggested that Elon Musk could swap the terms Technology and Science, to put Science forward- with the added argument that technological breakthroughs were the brainchild of scientific breakthroughs. To this, Musk retorted that the T would definitely be first. Otherwise, how could the acronym spell ‘TITS’?
Cher Scarlett, one of the main flag bearers of the AppleTOO anti-harassment group which operates at Apple, sardonically tweeted that she had heard a lot about sexism in the technological industry- but she could definitely be wrong about that.
In the 21st century, such a crass joke would be seen as stupid by anybody. But when you are the richest man on Earth, the face of two important tech conglomerates, and also have close to 62 million followers on Twitter, such a joke could be quite damaging to the entire sector devoted to the sciences.
Eric Wenger, the Senior Director at Cisco, also tweeted that they were trying to encourage more women participation in the sciences- and there was no way Elon Musk’s joke could help in that endeavor. In fact, it was definitely quite puzzling and disappointing to see one of the most powerful men on earth something this childish.
While Gwynne Shotwell, the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, believes that Elon Musk is simply a great boss, and extremely fair, the latest tweet from the ‘great boss’ might make this characterization a tad bit harder to believe.
