Cassandra Peterson — the sexually fluid actress who has played the gothic horror character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, since the early 1980s — recently posted Instagram videos mocking Elon Musk, the transphobia billionaire and neo-Nazi who has been unconstitutionally dismantling federal agencies as part of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Activists across the nation have increasingly demonstrated against Musk in “Tesla Takedown” protests at Tesla car showrooms to show disapproval of his displays of Nazism and his destruction of federal agencies.
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Elvira comes out & discusses 19-year relationship with a woman in new memoir
“I’m very aware that there will be some who will be disappointed and maybe even angry, but I have to live with myself…”
In the video, Peterson isn’t dressed as Elvira. Instead of the mistress’ trademark brunette wig and busty black gown, Peterson wears a black beanie in her first video. She smiles and waves from the driver’s side window of her silver Tesla car, her white dog standing in her lap, and says, “I hope you enjoy the new paint job on my Tesla as much as I do.”
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As she drives away, the video reveals that she has had the phrase “Elon Sux” written on her car’s side, using the X logo from Musk’s social media platform, X. Audio then plays of a woman saying, “Oh god, look at it — it’s perfect.”
In her post’s caption, she mocked Musk by listing out her five-point answer to the question, “What did you do last week?” The list is a reference to an email that Musk sent to tens of thousands of federal employees demanding that employees summarize their accomplishments in a five-bullet point email response by Monday at 11:59 p.m. or else their non-response would be interpreted as a resignation.
In Peterson’s caption, she wrote “What did you do last week?: 1: Woke up, 2: Brushed my teeth, 3: Signed autographs; 4: Your mom; 5: Got a new paint job on my Tesla!”
In a second video, Peterson wears sunglasses, a chain necklace and a black cap that says “Make America Goth Again,” a parody of the black “Make America Great Again” cap that Musk has repeatedly worn at recent public appearances.
“There goes my Elon Sux-mobile! I’m donating it to NPR [National Public Radio]!” she proudly declares as the car drives onto a tow truck. She then starts waving a chainsaw over her head while AC/DC’s rock song “Highway to Hell” plays. The chainsaw parodies Musk’s recent appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where he waved a red chainsaw given to him by Argentina’s anti-LGBTQ+ President Javier Milei.
She then points her middle finger at the vehicle.
Musk’s chainsaw was meant to symbolize the massive funding and staffing cuts he has conducted at numerous government agencies. Numerous Democrats have pointed out that Musk lacks the constitutional or congressional authority to do. DOGE has also mistakenly fired workers responsible for overseeing the safety of the nuclear weapons arsenal and scientists addressing the bird flu epidemic.
His cuts at USAID, the federal agency that oversees all foreign aid, have resulted in the ending of lifesaving initiatives to stop HIV transmissions and end hunger and bring stability to foreign countries. His cuts have been repeatedly ruled against in court but still haven’t been reinstated, costing potentially thousands of lives.
Republicans have begun regularly threatening to cut all federal funding of NPR, claiming that it broadcasts leftist political propaganda.
While NPR gets only about 1% of its funding from the federal government, about 10% of funding for NPR-member stations comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federal government’s funding arm for public media. If Congress revokes that funding, it will harm smaller and rural radio markets that broadcast to underserved communities that cannot always afford to fund their own radio news coverage or other programs locally.
Peterson came out as sexually fluid in her 2021 memoir, entitled Yours Cruelly, Elvira, in which she discussed her then-19-year relationship with a woman. She had previously been married for 25 years to a film producer named Mark Pierson. Then, after her divorce from Pierson, Peterson found herself unexpectedly attracted to a “beautiful, androgynous creature” named Teresa “T” Wierson, she wrote.
“I think I was even more surprised,” Peterson shared. “What the hell was I doing? I’d never been interested in women as anything other than friends. I felt so confused. This just wasn’t me! I was stunned that I’d been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry. I soon discovered that we connected sexually in a way I’d never experienced.”
In the book, Peterson also revealed that she worked as a drag queen at a gay bar in Colorado Springs during the 1970s, and that gay drag performers helped inspire her iconic character Elvira.
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