Everyone loves a wife guy when it’s Doug Emhoff supporting Kamala Harris on the campaign trail, but when Mark Zuckerberg builds a giant blue statue of his wife in his backyard, suddenly it’s weird? All right.
On Tuesday, the Meta CEO shared a photo of his new art piece — a statue of a turquoise Priscilla Chan draped in silver — on Instagram, where he wrote, “Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife.” Zuck and I don’t agree on much, but I think he’s right about this.
Per Forbes, Zuckerberg has a net worth of $184.2 billion. Literally, what else are you supposed to spend that kind of money on? He has already started collecting gold chains, learned how to wake surf, and become a semi-professional fighter. It was overdue for him to devote some of his money and energy to commissioning a big-ass statue of his wife from an Instagram-famous sculptor (Daniel Arsham, to be specific). Additionally, I think it’s a nice shade of blue and I like the silver — sue me!
Now, some people have decided that this is cringe. “This is the most billionaire thing to do ever,” wrote one commenter. One of my esteemed colleagues shared that she thinks “wealth is wasted on the wealthy.” Generally, I stand with her — but not in this case. I find myself aligning more with Gayle King, who wrote, “Wow! … is there a backstory here or just Tuesday nite at your house?? PS: Do you have an older brother who is Black I could meet … asking for a friend.” You don’t get a backyard statue of yourself without asking for what you want.