Grimes Calls Herself a “Marie Antoinette-Esque Symbol of Inequality”

Let them drive Teslas

Grimes attends the 2021 Met Gala benefit "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. The musician recently called herself a “Marie Antoinette-Esque Symbol of Inequality”
Grimes attending the 2021 Met Gala benefit
Taylor Hill/WireImage

Since her split with Elon Musk — with whom she shares baby X Æ A-Xii — back in September, Grimes has kept a relatively low profile online. But in a new TikTok this week captioned “back on the internet #sigh,” the musician claimed she has developed “severe PTSD from public life” and “debilitating anxiety about being online” and likened herself to Marie Antoinette, the extravagant queen who was famously guillotined during the French Revolution.

“Somehow ended up as some kind of Marie Antoinette-esque symbol for inequality in the pop stan community, which frankly is fairly entertaining and I’m not mad at that,” Grimes (real name Claire Boucher) said in the video.

Of course, we’d argue becoming a symbol of inequality sort of comes with the territory when you start dating a billionaire, and the Marie Antoinette comparisons only become more apt when you defend your boyfriend’s illegal union-busting while simultaneously claiming to be some sort of progressive with a vision for an egalitarian utopia.

“If it’s morally wrong to be ideating about radical utopia, then how are we ever going to get radical utopia? Because it’s not going to be from some existing form of government,” Grimes said in the new video. “And if you think I’m too privileged to be thinking about these ideas, or speaking about these ideas, then I would love nothing more than for everybody else to join me out here and literally prove me wrong… That’s how we find a solution.”

One of those new ideas she decided to speak about in her next TikTok? The possibility of using video games as a form of “radical wealth redistribution.” Of course, it’d be easier to simply make the ultra-wealthy (like her ex Musk, who is the second-richest man in the world yet paid no income tax in 2018) pay their fair share in taxes in order to fund things like public schools, infrastructure and countless social programs. But whatever — let them play video games.

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