That’s one of Elon Musk’s biological sons (he has a lot of them) above, now a trans-female model—not there’s anything wrong with that— named Vivian Wilson. The Daily Mail has a very tabloid story (as in “Who the hell cares about this stuff?”) telling us that Vivian is featured as a model in the latest Savage x Fenty new Pride-themed collection. Be still, my beating heart!
You can read the story here, if your sock drawer is in order and you have no life, but my concern involves how the link to the story was presented by Citizen Free Press, the conservative news aggregator that took over that market from the Drudge Report when Matt went woke and NeverTrump a decade ago. Here’s how the site described the link:
Elon Musk biological son poses for female lingerie ad — Warning, photos are disturbing
I expected Vivian to be posed on disemboweled kittens or famine victims with that trigger warning. No, the photos that are supposed to be “disturbing” are shots like the one above. How much of a weenie cum snowflake would someone have to be to find that photo upsetting enough to mandate a trigger warning? It’s a standard issue fashion shot. Is it supposed to disturb us because its a model with a y chromosome? If that’s the point, then I view the warning as legitimizing transphobia. Even trans-themed photographs that cause my ethics alarms to go off—remember this one, of a Disney “fairy godmother”?—
shouldn’t be considered so trauma-producing that people need an advance warning lest they be struck blind or something.
The somewhat less obnoxious explanation for the “warning” is that it’s a clickbait trick by the site; you know, if it requires a warning, everyone will be curious and click on it. Well, that’s dishonest. As an ethicist, I find the gratuitous trigger warning, indeed trigger warnings in general, far more disturbing than a photo of a biological male doing a convincing female model impression. Good for her! Brava!
It is episodes like this that create needless erosion of respect for conservative values and sensibilities.
Ethics Alarms 
My first comment is what children of celebrities do is not news. Why is it important to know that one of Elon Musk’s sons is transgender and a model? Vivian Wilson has his/her own life to live, and deserves as much privacy as anybody else.
My second comment is why Citizens Free Press present an adults’s legal choices regarding their sexuality as a scandal. Get over it!
Bingo.
The Fairy Godmother with the facial hair is far more disgusting.
Previously, Disney parks focused on making the experience magical for children. In furtherance of that goal, cast members at the park had to look the part both physically (height/weight/face/hair/makeup/costume) and behaviorally (you’d never catch Cinderella smoking, for example).
The decision to allow the “Fairy Godmother” in that part of Disneyland to be the “Fairy Godmother’s apprentice” elevated autogynephilic employees’ cross-dressing desires above children’s fairy-tale fantasies. The result of the parks’ clear shift in values may not be “trauma-producing.” But it’s no surprise that Disney customers were offended when their children’s interests were given short shrift.
I understand Jack’s position that the fairy godmother in drag didn’t warrant a trigger warning. I disagree slightly. I’d want to know beforehand, but I wouldn’t call it a trigger warning. More like a “just FYI before you spend a fortune on an OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive Disneyland vacation, they’ve made this one change that ruptures the illusion and will probably piss you off” warning.
If warned far enough in advance, families might opt to go to Disneyland anyway. But they might instead decide to give some of their hard-earned money to a theme park that hadn’t demonstrated such disdain for them. I have no idea, but perhaps Dollywood or Universal Studios would be better in this regard.
Agreed that there’s no need for a trigger warning for such decidedly tame lingerie shots. I will comment on a couple of disturbing aspects to this ad campaign, though.
(1) Just like when Dylan Mulvaney was modeling Nike sports bras, it’s lunacy to have a man model lingerie in hopes that women will buy it. Jack might find Wilson’s impression convincing, but I certainly don’t. As a woman, it’s instantly clear to me that I’m looking at a skinny, pouty man in a bra & panties. If the ad’s actual purpose is to sell underwear to women, it’s a failure.
(2) Based on how unconvincing I find Wilson’s womanface, I doubt the ad’s actual purpose is to sell underwear. I suspect the ad’s true aim is to humiliate Elon Musk, and that Wilson was chosen for no other reason than that he’s Musk’s son. If so, that’s terrible.
I’m not sure about the trigger warning. I don’t like clickbait, but it’s pretty much everywhere now, so ironically enough, it’s forced me to read more articles more closely because I don’t trust any headlines anymore.
But…let’s begin with modern standards of modesty vs. earlier ones. In a different time, this outfit alone would’ve been considered provocative because of the very little clothing on this person. Even if a trans person were to be passing, there are plenty of people who think our standards of modesty in public are pretty terrible and we need to bring back more modesty. If a person were of such a persuasion, that part of the model photo could be considered an issue. This argument has 0 to do with being trans and more about standards of dress.
Because standards of modesty and variations in lifestyles have changed, things considered “shocking” are now considered more normal. Many people still strongly believe that affirming a trans person is affirming mental illness and spreading a culture of lying, which makes us value truth less, another step towards again lower standards overall. Desensitization is a real thing and an argument people use against exposing people to too much debauchery.
So, the arguments are basically modesty and truth seeking, and this model violates both of those values at once and in a very celebratory in your face kind of way. The tone is a direct attempt to normalize being trans.
In fact, it could be a really sad photo because it illustrates once again our society doesn’t care about modesty and that a person with a real mental illness that causes real suffering is actually being led in the wrong direction, even by well meaning people.
At least this isn’t like the Penn State women’s swimming where clearly male ground tackle is bulging away at the swimsuit and we’re all supposed to pretend we can’t notice it.