Why do men speak over women: Elon Musk & Jess Phillips
Jess Philips, Minster for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, has received online abuse from tech billionaire and owner of X, Elon Musk. He claimed she is a ‘rape genocide apologist’ and should be jailed after she stated that an inquiry into child abuse needed to be left to an independent inquiry by the local authorities, not taken on by the government. This is the most recent of Musk's comments after his recent spree of attacks on the current Labour Government.
Phillips, who ran a domestic abuse refuge before becoming a Labour MP, evidently has a strong knowledge of the backlash that women and girls receive when they speak up about the oppression and violence they face. Phillips has since spoken out about threats to her safety since Musk made his comments on X. She also expressed that she was 'resigned to the lot in life that you get as a woman who fights violence against women and girls.'
Whilst Musk claims to be standing up for women being abused, he is directing abuse towards women who understand the issue more deeply than himself.
Musk is abusing his platform to push a narrative that women who are speaking out against violence against women and girls are the ones putting them in danger. If Musk showed a true commitment to caring about the protection of women and young girls, then he would speak up for more comprehensive education and against the culture of toxic masculinity that festers and grows on his platform. However, Musk is yet to comment on either; instead, we are seeing tech billionaires like Musk and Meta owner Mark Zuckerburg promote a culture of 'more masculinity' within the workplace. (It seems that Zuckerburg has forgotten that the backbone of modern social media was built on him ranking and rating his fellow female students on their looks).
Phillips dismissed suggestions the government had been promoted into action by Musk's X intervention, as the posts coincided with Yvette Cooper's announcement that those covering up child sexual abuse will face criminal sanctions. It seems that the women in government are working hard to stop violence against women and girls, yet Musk wants to silence these women.
Here, we can see how powerful women are put under the microscope in public life and how they often face disproportionate backlash compared to men, especially when challenging influential figures such as Musk. It should not be controversial for a woman with over ten years of experience to make an informed decision about her area of expertise - and she should not receive thousands of hate comments for doing so.
We must question the impact of individualistic, hyper-masculine tech billionaires commenting on the experiences of women and girls at a time when community and social justice are becoming more important than ever.
Sources:
Elon Musk's 'disinformation' endangering me, says Jess Phillips - BBC News
Yvette Cooper promises law to tackle child sex abuse cover ups - BBC News
