Eliana Dockterman isn’t wrong about Elizabeth Holmes’ privilege. I haven’t seen Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary yet, so I don’t know if the thrust of Dockterman’s brief Time review (that Gibney fails to connect the privileged dots as part of his narrative) is accurate, but I do wonder why Dockterman doesn’t mention herself that Holmes’ dad is a former Enron executive.
Dockterman’s breakdown of the Holmes-as-siren trope is probably right on: “Though the documentary suggests that Holmes essentially seduced her famous male board members, who included Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, that seems suspect: any woman will identify Holmes as a CEO desperate for the Valley to forget her gender. (She wore black turtlenecks, lowered her voice several octaves and publicly declared she did not date…”
A few days ago, Katie Heaney asked, regarding Holmes’ now well-known vocal affection, What Kind of Person Fakes Their Voice? I’m not a woman, but I just assumed it had to do with heading off gender bias. Dockterman’s points about Holmes wanting “the Valley to forget her gender” make all kinds of sense to me.
Chris Cocca 