Elon Musk questioned gender-affirming surgical procedures on Twitter and was immediately met with photos of his own alleged hair plugs.
In What is a Woman? conservative political commentator Matt Walsh discusses gender - including sex reassignment surgery. Following its release, the film has been criticised on social media by members of the LGBTQ + community for its transphobic perspective.
On Twitter, one viewer shared a link to his review of the documentary claiming that it is “institutionalising stereotypes about gender”.
Responding to the tweet about the documentary, Musk addressed his thoughts and questions regarding gender-affirming surgeries.
“We are simultaneously being told that gender differences do not exist and that genders are so profoundly different that irreversible surgery is the only option,” he wrote. “Perhaps someone wiser than me can explain this dichotomy. It is a better world if we are all less judgy.”
In response, Twitter users have called the Tesla boss out for reportedly getting a “more gender-affirming surgery” and shared images of his hair plugs.
“Cis people get more gender-affirming surgery than trans people do,” one person wrote in a tweet to Musk, along with side-by-side images of him bald and a more recent one of him with a head of hair.
“If I had to guess, it’s similar to this. Still the same guy as before, but needed a change to feel right about yourself,” another Twitter user responded to Musk, along with photos of the businessman with and without hair.
A third Twitter user addressed how breast reconstructions and implants are often gender-affirming procedures for cis-gender people, as they wrote: “Good question! Should we ban gender-affirming surgeries such as hair plugs? Breast implants?”
Mr Musk hasn’t publicly confirmed that he got hair plugs.
This isn’t the first time Mr Musk has shared his thoughts about the transgender community. In December 2020, he received widespread criticism after he poked fun at people’s pronouns.
“I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare,” he wrote on Twitter at the time.
Over the last few months, more states in America have continued to enforce anti-trans laws. According to UCLA’s School of Law’s Williams Institute, 15 states have “restricted access to gender-affirming care or are currently considering laws that would do so”.
The bills that have or could be put in place have “severe penalties for health care providers, and sometimes families, who provide or seek out gender-affirming care for minors”.
In a study conducted by the institute, researchers found that approximately 58,200 transgender minors are at risk of “losing access to care because of state bans and policies”.
