Elon Musk Just Made A Juvenile Sexist Joke On Twitter—And People Are Calling Him Out

Elon Musk is getting dragged on Twitter--yet again.

Tesla CEO and world's richest man Elon Musk is receiving backlash on Twitter for posting a sexist tweet that encapsulates the harassment that women face in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.

Musk posted the tweet on October 29 and has been getting called out ever since.

In the tweet, Musk jokes that he wants to create a new University, named the Texas Institute of Technology and Science. Musk even leaned into the bit, stating that the University "will have epic merch, universally admired."

Sounds fancy right? Well, if you read over it again, you might notice that the initials of the supposed school spell "TITS."

Musk wasn't seriously proposing building a new University, but rather making a crude and sexist joke about boobs.

One person earnestly suggested that Musk switch the final two letters of the acronym, putting "science" before "technology" under the premise that "technological breakthroughs almost always follow scientific breakthroughs."

Musk retorted:

"Nope, T is def first."

Musk's jokes received criticism not just because it was sexist, but because it represents how difficult it is to work as a woman in the STEM field and the kinds of harassment that these women have to put up with in their professional careers.

In fact, a survey conducted by Accenture and Girls Who Code found that half of the women in technology related careers quit their jobs by the time they turn 35 years-old. Out of this 50% who leave their careers, a whopping 37% of those women cite their reason for leaving as "noninclusive company culture."

Tesla especially has been known to be a toxic work environment for women. The company has an abysmal female employment rate, with only one in five employees being female.

What's more, Tesla was the target of a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2017, where engineer AJ Vandermeyden, along with other female employee, alleged that women in the workplace faced "inappropriate language, whistling, and catcalls."

Musk's joke didn't land and offended many Twitter users. Namely, Cher Scarlett, a leader of the Apple corporation's AppleToo anti-harassment group, who left a scathingly sarcastic response to Musk's offensive tweet.

Scarlett responded:

"I heard sexualizing women is a top-down, systemic issue in tech. Might be wrong though idk."

Eric Wenger, the senior director for technology policy and government affairs at Cisco and Tesla shareholder, also criticized Musk for his inappropriate joke.

He said:

"Honestly. As a shareholder and customer, this is really a puzzling and disappointing attempt at humor."

"We are trying to encourage more women to pursue technology degrees and careers. I cannot see how this helps that effort in any way."

Scarlett and Wenger are far from the only people criticizing Musk. In fact, it seems like all of Twitter has been calling him out for his cringey sense of humor.

At this time, neither Musk nor Tesla has made a statement responding to the situation.