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Interestingly you won't find this for well connected white males. Sam Bankman Fried didn't hurt anybody else in his gender class, but somehow now all women hav

Interestingly you won't find this for well connected white males. Sam Bankman Fried didn't hurt anybody else in his gender class, but somehow now all women have to carry the baggage of Elizabeth Holmes.

xyzelement 19d ago
If you think about it a little harder, the pattern isn't just gender but "thing you are standing out for". In the Holmes case, she was visibly celebrated for being a young female (as a positive) so it's not shocking that it flipped to a negative on people's mind when she was proven to be a fraud. In the case of SBF, he wasn't celebrated for being male. But he was notable for his association with "effective altruism". Has the reputation of the EA community been adversely affected by his downfall? Absolutely. So that's the more part analogy here.
- phatfish 18d ago
  Fair enough. But SBF chose to associate with "effective altruism". Did Holmes create the "I'm an amazing FEMALE entrepreneur" persona? Or was she focused on the scam and the narrative was created around her?
alyeska2 19d ago
You also won't find this for future female founders, because the comment you're replying to is a random internet poster imagining things. You can say "I can imagine VCs saying..." and then complete the sentence with literally anything nonsense, it doesn't mean its real. A big part of the Theranos story is that gender was used as a shield - when people called it a fraud they were dismissed as sexists and Holmes got a lot of easy positive press coverage from media that was dying for stories of about a female visionary founder. No women are going to have to "carry the baggage" of Elizabeth Holmes. At most, maybe they just won't have the magical protection against all criticism that she had for a number of years. But realistically, people have short memories so we'll probably have a new "The female Elon Musk" hype cycle start around someone new in a year or two.
anukin 19d ago
Even after Holmes, Charlie Javice got funded. Even now Mira Murati and others involved in AI are well funded. I don’t think upper class white women are affected much by Elizabeth Holmes.
notourproblem 16d ago
>white males >quite possibly the most jewish man to ever live

xyzelement 19d ago

If you think about it a little harder, the pattern isn't just gender but "thing you are standing out for". In the Holmes case, she was visibly celebrated for being a young female (as a positive) so it's not shocking that it flipped to a negative on people's mind when she was proven to be a fraud. In the case of SBF, he wasn't celebrated for being male. But he was notable for his association with "effective altruism". Has the reputation of the EA community been adversely affected by his downfall? Absolutely. So that's the more part analogy here.

phatfish 18d ago
Fair enough. But SBF chose to associate with "effective altruism". Did Holmes create the "I'm an amazing FEMALE entrepreneur" persona? Or was she focused on the scam and the narrative was created around her?

alyeska2 19d ago

You also won't find this for future female founders, because the comment you're replying to is a random internet poster imagining things. You can say "I can imagine VCs saying..." and then complete the sentence with literally anything nonsense, it doesn't mean its real. A big part of the Theranos story is that gender was used as a shield - when people called it a fraud they were dismissed as sexists and Holmes got a lot of easy positive press coverage from media that was dying for stories of about a female visionary founder. No women are going to have to "carry the baggage" of Elizabeth Holmes. At most, maybe they just won't have the magical protection against all criticism that she had for a number of years. But realistically, people have short memories so we'll probably have a new "The female Elon Musk" hype cycle start around someone new in a year or two.

anukin 19d ago

Even after Holmes, Charlie Javice got funded. Even now Mira Murati and others involved in AI are well funded. I don’t think upper class white women are affected much by Elizabeth Holmes.

notourproblem 16d ago

>white males >quite possibly the most jewish man to ever live