Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty last week of four out of 11 counts of fraud, mostly relating to defrauding investors. She faces up to 20 years in federal prison, assuming her sentences are concurrent. Experts say she’s likely to get 14 to 17 years and will surely appeal.
Some of the women who attended the trial are fans of Holmes who call themselves “Holmies” and dress like her in black turtlenecks and messy blonde ponytails. It turns out that she has other supporters who sell merchandise on Etsy with sayings like “girl boss” and “I wish Elizabeth Holmes had an MLM.” Only some of these are sold ironically. The owner of an Etsy shop called “We Are Elizabeth Holmes” spoke to Business Insider about her business. She called Holmes “a femme fatale who rose up in an industry of old stuffy men and beat them at their own game.”
Elizabeth Holmes… still has the support of some fans who call themselves “Holmies” — and hail Holmes as a “Girl Boss.”
“We love her because her story is a villain origin story that we can all relate to,” a representative of an Etsy shop called We Are Elizabeth Holmes who asked to remain anonymous due to the controversial community, told Insider.
The Etsy shop sells Holmes merchandise, including T-shirts and mugs, some with now-infamous quotes including: “First they think you’re crazy, then they fight you, then you change the world.”
“She’s a femme fatale who rose up in an industry of old stuffy men and beat them at their own game,” they said, adding that the conviction “doesn’t change the way we feel about her.”
The Etsy store representative called Holmes’ guilty verdict “harsh” but “fair.”
Fans of Holmes are mostly trolling, with a sprinkling of genuine respect.
The Holmes fandom, which Insider first reported on in September, appears to be small but mighty.
On September 9, at the start of her trial, three women dressed in Holmes’ iconic black turtleneck and blonde bun look were photographed waiting outside the court to catch a glimpse of her. Dorothy Atkins, a senior reporter at Law 360, said in a tweet that the women told her they were “fans.”
But many of Holmes’ fans seem to support her ironically. Insider has found two active Facebook pages, one which is satirical and pretends to post as Holmes and another that calls itself an “unofficial fan page.” The fan page has 2,785 members but has not been updated since October 24, 2021.
Still, there are pockets of folks with a hint of genuine respect for Holmes. TikTok creator Serena Shahidi, who has 424,000 followers and frequently posts about Holmes, told Insider in September that her story can be seen as a feminist issue, as it’s empowering to see a woman be such an audacious villain.
“There is something kind of progressive about the idea that a woman in the news isn’t playing by anyone’s rules,” she said.
The owner of an Instagram account called @elizabethholmesupdates, Annuncia Roberts, previously told Insider that the fandom grew from the situation being “almost funny.” Roberts, who is mostly trolling with the memes she posts about Holmes, also said she thought Holmes taking money from wealthy people was “satisfying.”
In a recent satirical Instagram story after the verdict, Roberts said it was a “dark day” and people should show support for “Lizzie” by donning their “best black turtleneck.”
One TikTok user named Caroline Dunlap, who uses the handle @ygdunlap, posted a video on January 4 saying Holmes was “#1 in my heart,” as her actions were “unprecedented for a woman.”
Dunlap added that Holmes was “epic” for modifying her voice to be lower and “scheming” secretaries of state. It has 134,000 views.
In the comments, though, Dunlap clarified that she did not condone the damage Holmes caused and understood she was “100% guilty.”
I don’t care about people like Henry Kissinger and Betsy DeVos getting defrauded, I might understand a little if people were celebrating the terrible rich people being fleeced, but patients were hurt by Theranos’ unreliable blood test results. Employees of Theranos were harmed too, and their former chief scientific officer died by suicide. Holmes took it as far as testing centers in Walgreens and ignored repeated warnings by scientists that the technology was not ready. She knew exactly what she was doing. I guess there are a lot of women who wish they had Holmes’ kind of nerve to pull off fraud on a massive scale. I don’t think you can separate that from the harm she did. Also, I only just learned that her father once worked for Enron. Of course he did.
This is a parody of Live, Life, Love.
I sort-of understand this as a dig at MLM culture, but why would you spend $25 on a t-shirt if you didn’t admire this woman?
This admiration is very misplaced. Is it funny she fleeced old men for money? In a vacuum, 100%.
But it wasn’t in a vacuum and she was playing with peoples health. she also destroyed lives and careers of people who worked for her. It’s not funny, it’s not admirable, and she is a terrible leader and an even worse person.
And even if you were ok with all of that, her company was a technical failure. Her invention didn’t work. So. Not sure what we’re supposed to be proud of here?
If she fleeced old men for a video game that never came to market it would be a funny story. She played with people’s lives and did not GAF.
I would buy the ‘Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss’ shirt. That’s funny AF
I finally read Bad Blood by John Carreyrou last week and cannot recommend it enough.
I’m listening to Bad Blood on Audible right now and am about halfway through. It’s great.
It. Is. RIVETING. I read it last year (or the year before? Time has no meaning, lol) and could not put it down. She is a sociopath with big blue eyes and blonde hair and she ABSOLUTELY deserves jail time. Achieving the same level of criminality as the bros is not the kind of equality women should strive for, IMO.
She thought she was a genius who could just “fake it ’til you make it” with people’s health and wellbeing. She is actually a scam artist, liar, and fraud.
All the young, talented, recent grads who got hired by Theranos…no one will hire them now. Even though only thing they did wrong was pick the wrong start up to work for. The scientist who quit and attempted to blow the whistle, and was harassed incessantly by Holmes and Sunni’s lawyers until he committed suicide. The patients who received false lab results, including the woman who had previous multiple miscarriages, and were making serious medical decisions based on tests Holmes knew were fake. It wasn’t just old white men with too much money she hurt. She destroyed people who can never recover. Funny now?
I never get it – why having a company like Theranos in CV is a problem for its former workers? They didn’t scam anyone, did their best in a tricky situation. They were all mostly well-educated, hardworking people. Why should their former boss’ sins matter to their future employers? Society works in odd ways, to me. Yesterday, I had a conversation and it turned out that most people wouldn’t hire a former sex worker, even if they were the best candidate otherwise. You know, not even for an engineering job that has nothing to do with PR etc. So sad.
She is nothing to admire.
People died. Supporting this is as bad as supporting Jan. 6. Different instances. Same anger. Same vomitus mass. People like this DGAF about anyone else. They require removal from society.
Ugh, no. This is ridiculous and actively harmful. This is exactly the kind of thing mra trolls and misogynists dream of happening so they can use it for their regressive agendas. They would love to pretend the flack they EARN for awful things like blaming women they don’t like for rape, using/defending others using dehumanizing slurs, cyberbullying, conversion therapy stereotypes, misuse of sexual trauma, being anti-choice, defending Trump/Trumpsters, etc. is like being asked to support Elizabeth Holmes in the name of feminism. I can already see them cracking their hideous knuckles and getting ready to type something about how blaming some woman for abuse is no different from women like Elizabeth Holmes being held accountable for ACTUAL CRIMES.
There is nothing to celebrate about her hurting people. At all.
She literally killed several women who’s cancer worsened into more serious stages and their doctors didn’t know because she was falsifying blood test results to cover for the fact their her rapid skin prick blood test was all a sham they didn’t actually have the technology for. (Which BTW by definition isn’t beating anyone, she’s a miserable failure.)
That’s not a feminist icon. That’s the antithesis of one. She killed women. For the pursuit of money. That’s literally the patriarchy’s MO.
She was so obsessed with being one of those old patriarchal men, not besting them, that she happily victimized women and even caused the death of them.
“She was so obsessed with being one of those old patriarchal men, not besting them, that she happily victimized women and even caused the death of them.” Good point.
This is peak girlboss energy so their use of that fits. Girl bosses think they can do what men do including the bad stuff and it should be fine because men do it to get ahead.
The girlboss thing has to go in the bin. Right with Elizabeth.
George Schultz grandson was the whistleblower. She figured it out and continually sued him, dropped the law suit then refiled another, until he said his parents were looking at selling their house. He told his grandfather it was all fraud but old George stuck with her. Besides swindling these people she was viscous to employees. Watch the documentary. If this were just a case of stupid old men having their heads turned by a good looking woman I’d really wouldn’t care but she did so much more harm.
Nope…she is morally corrupt human being. Yea, I think it’s awesome about how she defrauded a bunch of rich people and old white men. But the bad outweighs the good because she put society in danger with her non-existent technology.
She was also delusional and fake AF (deep voice) and gaslighted women. She didn’t want to take advice from her women professors and seemed out men who fell for her blonde ambition.
I’m not to sure why women are supporting her, cause she didn’t stick it to patriarchy or rich ppl…
Real feminism right here. Young women can commit massive fraud, too!
I think people want her to be the Martha Stewart who went to jail for two years for insider trading when the white men would NEVER have gone to jail. They want her to be this version of Martha, but she isn’t that. I do understand the urge for a woman who doesn’t play by the rules, screws men over, empowers other women by rejecting the “good girl,” and embracing the badass, but again, Holmes is not that woman. I agree that we do need that woman. Women are tired of seeing only men on the world stage and do long for an “outlaw,” a “renegade,” a “kickass” gal that can make it happen. They are tired of playing by the rules when the rules let them down and keep them under. I so understand that need.
Gaslight
Gatekeep
Girlboss
Go to Prison
Holmes is grotesque. She is a liar with flagrant disregard for the health and state of mind of anyone using her blood testing machine. She was well aware her machine could never carry out the “Hundreds of tests” that she repeatedly said it did. There is nothing to admire about a liar.
JAIL. Now and for a very very long time
‘I guess there are a lot of women who wish they had Holmes’ kind of nerve to pull off fraud on a massive scale.’
And this is why people fall for get rich quick schemes, they want to be criminals just like them and don’t have the ethics to be bothered by the fact that they’re doing things that are morally wrong. Get $$ at all costs
“Still, there are pockets of folks with a hint of genuine respect for Holmes. TikTok creator Serena Shahidi, who has 424,000 followers and frequently posts about Holmes, told Insider in September that her story can be seen as a feminist issue, as it’s empowering to see a woman be such an audacious villain.
“There is something kind of progressive about the idea that a woman in the news isn’t playing by anyone’s rules,” she said.”
What a stupid thing to say, even if trying to be clever. There is NOTHING progressive about breaking the law. The minimum standard anyone should be held to is to tell the truth. To be honest, even if they have to admit their idea isn’t working… She didn’t just break the rules of the patriarchy, she committed fraud, harassment, perjury, bodily harm… she didn’t just weasel a few bucks out of a bunch of billionaires. JFC.
I watched the Out for Blood doc and it was so revealing, even if it could only truly scratch the surface of her deception. Holmes might have had an earnest and altruistic goal from the beginning, but she was not smart enough, nor qualified at all to make her dream into a reality. She was essentially a highschooler with a great science fair idea, that played it out in the adult world with real money and people’s lives. That we know she was only held accountable to investors, and not to the patients and innocent bystanders she harmed is just awful. There really isn’t justice if those victims did not get justice.
And this sick celebration, when the truth is out there for all to see, is just disgusting. It’s not boomers vs. millenials, it is moral versus the immoral…
This is a sad reflection of our society for several reasons:
1) Their admiration of Holmes has nothing to do with feminism. It’s not feminist to use the existing, harmful capitalist system to exploit and hurt regular people.
2) She also isn’t revolutionary. Plenty of women who started/run MLMs have beat men at that game. Her actions will also have a negative cascading effect on other tech start-ups that are initiated by women. These companies hardly got looks from investors before this scandal, they will get even less attention now. Women will have to spec out and prove their tech nine ways to Sunday before many investors will even consider their companies, but male tech leaders will continue to thrive.
3) All of the ‘really smart’ men that invested millions into her company with little documentation and/or proof of the claims of the technology highlight how the venture capitalist/investment arena is mostly a scam. It’s just very rich people gambling on ideas that sound good and/or have company leaders that know how to flatter the egos of investors. They get lauded when one or more of their gambles pays off, but we rarely hear about all of the investment gambles that fail, often spectacularly
4) The worst part of the ending of this story is that she was not convicted on the charges of directly harming consumers. She is only facing jail time because she shined a light on the fact that the ‘brilliant’ men at the top of the American oligarchy are not necessarily brilliant, but are often lucky to have money and the right connections at the right time.
Why does she look so craaaaaaazy?!