Chantel Rodriguez

Staff Writer

cvr5570@psu.edu

In a Vanity Fair interview, singer and partner to the world’s richest man Elon Musk, Grimes, came under scrutiny for insensitive statements regarding Musk’s lifestyle.

Grimes’s entirely out-of-touch remarks shocked her fans and followers on social media by her assumptions of what she believes to be “below the poverty line.” 

While speaking about aspects of their relationship, Grimes stated, “Like, bro wouldn’t even get a new mattress… Bro does not live like a billionaire. Bro lives at times below the poverty line.” 

In what way could any individual ever compare living frugally to living below the poverty line. 

They do not equate to one another. There is a massive difference between Musk deciding to keep their old mattress because he doesn’t want to change it versus someone choosing between paying a utility bill over getting groceries for their family because they do not have the opportunity to secure both. 

Elon Musk and Grimes do not live below the poverty line by our government standards. Grimes to make such statements is utterly naïve of her and puts her privilege on showcase. 

Vanity Fair is interviewing her in their Austin, Texas home in an exclusive neighborhood with a view of the Colorado River and includes a small pool for leisure. It honestly made me want to stop reading because I can’t agree with anything Musk and Grimes say or do. 

To Grimes, living below the poverty line means: “Can we not live in a very insecure $40,000 house? Where the neighbors, like, film us, and there’s no security, and I’m eating peanut butter for eight days in a row?” Grimes willingly choose to eat peanut butter for a week to say that they don’t live like other billionaires. I can’t make sense of it. 

As an outsider who has watched real everyday people close to me deal with issues of poverty, it ultimately bothers me that someone like Grimes uses it as an aesthetic to seem relatable to her audience. 

We live in a country where 37 million people live below the poverty line, homelessness in our communities, and children go to bed hungry; she comments about not living a lavish lifestyle but having many nannies, traveling the world, and access to food, shelter and healthcare. They have never experienced living in poverty. 

It bothers me just as much as Kim Kardashians’ controversial interview for Variety, where her best advice to women in business was, “Get your f—- ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” 

I’m not sure if anyone has told Kim this. However, people are working three jobs, taking care of their families, getting an education, and still having problems living a comfortable life, so the problem doesn’t lie with people not having the motivation to work. Still, the problem is our system which seems to keep the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

Comments like the ones from Grimes and Kardashian should display how out of touch these celebrities are with the situations thrown to us as everyday people in society. We don’t get to choose the positions we are born into, but we try to survive and make them better.