One thing about Mark Zuckerberg is that man wants to be a Roman emperor so badly.
The Meta CEO recently commissioned a giant sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan, saying in an Instagram caption that he’s “bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife.”
The statue, made by Daniel Arsham, presents Chan midstride in green with a flowing silver cloak. It is beautiful, but it is not a particularly Roman work of art. Romans definitely erected plenty of pietas, which did take off during the reign of Augustus (Zuckerberg’s number one role model). But pietas at the time were often coins, not massive statues. And while pietas were shown as signs of devotion toward powerful women, they weren’t always people’s lovers, wives, or partners. Augustus didn’t actually commission many statues of his wife, Livia Drusilla, that we know of. He commissioned statues about his family, his reign, his values, and other monuments, but there weren’t statues of personal romantic relationships — at least, not ones he erected in public.
But let’s move beyond Zuckerberg’s quixotic, if foolish, attempt to “bring back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife” and ask the important question: Do people like it?
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Chan commented, “The more of me, the better?” with a heart emoji, signaling that she probably likes it. And, much to my surprise, most of the internet seems to also like it.
“Look, I’m not a Zuckerberg fan for many reasons, but it is kind of hilarious that a set of billionaires are steadily twitter-poisoning themselves into heretofore unknown levels of Divorced Guy Syndrome, and meanwhile he’s bopping along commissioning statues of his wife,” Leah Greenberg, the co-executive director of Indivisible Team, posted on X.
Another user posted, “No offense. I know we’re not supposed to like Zuckerberg. But this is what a billionaire should do for his wife.”
For some reason, many people, including People, are calling this peak Wife Guy content. But the essence of Wife Guy is making things that are actually about and for your wife — and this is clearly about Zuckerberg himself. As Mashable editor and famous Wife Guy Tim Marcin put it, this is “Wife Guy stolen valor.”
