Bad Witches: Gender and the Downfall of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Disney’s Maleficent
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Method
3. Expectations of Female Altruism Not Ambition
3.1. Elizabeth Holmes (EH)
3.1.1. Childhood Ambition
3.1.2. Adoption of Male Traits
3.1.3. Relentless Work Ethic and Autocratic (Male) Management Style
3.2. “Male” Ficent: Confidence without Empathy
4. Finger Pricking
Like the phalanx of the ancient armies, the prick is an effective weapon to penetrate an enemy’s fortress. In this case, the fortress the prick wants to penetrate is either the vagina or the assertiveness of a female colleague. Men fight women’s attempts to gain equality … [using a] metaphorical phallus that reminds women of who in contemporary society is entitled to privilege and power.
4.1. The Pricking Power of Maleficent
4.2. EH as Wielding Pricking Power
[W]hat made Holmes’s quest to defy death so fantastical was the magical element at its core. With only a minuscule amount of blood, Holmes claimed—just a fingertip’s pinprick, like Sleeping Beauty on her spindle—a mysterious, proprietary black box [an Edison] could screen for dozens of diseases and disorders. Holmes would never disclose exactly what went on inside her mysterious machines, insisting that she was entitled to her trade secrets.
5. Women’s Independence as a Threat that Is Historically Linked to Witches and Sorcery
The fantasies about the unlimited sexual powers and depravity of women may have been a reflection of the fear engendered by the large number of unmarried women not subject to the authority of fathers or husbands, as, according to prevailing views, they ought to have been.
5.1. Significance of Burning the Spinning Wheels after Maleficent’s Finger-Pricking Curse
5.2. EH as a Pseudo-Spinster
6. Supernatural Powers
6.1. EH and the Power to Beguile
6.2. The Personal Legend as Magical Inspiration
7. Male Animals as Alter Egos
7.1. EH
7.2. Maleficent
8. The Downfall of the Villains
9. Unseating Maleficent and EH to Restore the Gender Hierarchy
10. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | Maleficent’s notoriety is heightened by her comparison to the passive Aurora, the most recognizable of Disney princesses (Hine et al. 2018a), and a Disney character that remains popular as measured by sales of Disney princess merchandise (Dundes and Streiff 2016). |
2 | Maleficent reigns as the most popular of the Disney villains (according to sales on the Disney store website: www.shop.disney.com), a popularity apparent in plans for a sequel to the live action Maleficent (2014) (with a release date scheduled for late 2019). |
3 | For a plot summary of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), see Davis 2007 (pp. 242–43). |
4 | By contrast, Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics company made her the youngest person ever on Forbes’ annual ranking of America’s Richest Self-Made Women in 2019. Notably, however, her income was from purveying beauty products (not STEM), a realm where women are accepted as authorities. |
5 | Coverage of EH includes an ABC News podcast, The Dropout (2019) and a documentary distributed by HBO, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019). A Hollywood film based on Carreyrou’s Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (Carreyrou 2018a) is forthcoming. |
6 | In the updated Sleeping Beauty-themed live action film Maleficent (2014), the title character is redeemed when she demonstrates the gender-conforming traits of maternal love and compassion for Aurora, transforming from a witch to a mother figure. |
7 | To “have the last laugh” does not connote that something is literally funny, but rather satisfaction from being in a superior position relative to someone who has disrespected the subject, as evident from the cackling of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz and popular Disney villains such as the queen as witch in Snow White, Ursula the Sea Witch in the Little Mermaid, and Cruella de Vil (a “deVil”) in 101 Dalmatians. |
8 | In Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, “Jack-o’-Lantern” and “Will-o’-the Wisp” are both examples of Motif F491 (Baughman 2012, p. 232). Their mesmerizing quality may explain why candles are considered romantic, with even ersatz renditions designed to flicker. They are employed only at night when their flickering possesses the same enticing, magical quality. |
9 | Disney artists erred in drawing the “spindle” which is in fact depicted as a distaff (used for storing unspun flax before it is spun into linen). The distaff, a word that denotes a female and means a “visible display of feminine virtue” (Do Rozario 2018, p. 136), is mistakenly portrayed as mounted by a phallic quill which would actually be both useless and hazardous (Ohio Memory 2017, para 6; see Ashford 2019). Thus, this spinning wheel contains an incorrect mélange of male and female symbols (that is, a female distaff and a phallic quill) that perhaps symbolizes its use as a tool by a female that usurps phallic power. |
10 | Rumpelstiltskin “elevates male spinning to a form of alchemy and magic” in which a male with a phallic wand accomplishes the spinning without labor (Do Rozario 2018, p. 142). |
11 | At the close of ceremonies conferring “bachelor” degrees, graduates toss their tassel-adorned caps in the air, a tradition started by men in the Naval Academy. The tassel, commonly yellow, is like a corn tassel that discharges pollen to fertilize female ovules via wind, a symbol of male power. |
12 | Carreyrou traces the notion of a reality distortion field (from television show Star Trek) to its inception in EH’s role model, Steve Jobs. The magical powers linked to this term are described as resulting from an “indomitable will” that manifests like “a force of nature”, traits more acceptable in men who are supposed to wield power and influence (Hargrave 2016). |
13 | Elsewhere, the authors discuss shapeshifting as a reflection of phallocentric power and how the power to desiccate is linked to the evil eye in which envy is destructive and threatens male virility (Streiff and Dundes 2017b). |
14 | Only male knights were permitted to seek the Holy Grail as women were seen as either “the mother or the temptress” and thus were expressly excluded from participating (Lopez 2007, p. 8). |
15 | Steve Jobs himself drew on Biblical references with his company’s logo of an apple with a bite missing, harkening back to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. |
16 | For a photo of a libation vase with bullhorns like those of Maleficent (at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete), see http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/4/eh430.jsp?obj_id=7883. |
17 | Ironically, both male and female British judges distinguish their status by wearing wigs longer than those of barristers. All the wigs in court are based on centuries-old men’s hairstyles indicating that it is not the hair itself that confers status, but rather its association with males. This pattern applies to gowns worn in court or by esteemed religious figures that signal gravitas due to associations with male-based power. |
18 | Disney recapitulated this theme in The Little Mermaid (1989) when the Sea Witch Ursula usurps male power as evidenced by her newly masculine deep voice that makes her a fitting target for feminization by impalement, allowing Prince Eric to establish his masculinity (Dundes and Dundes 2000). |
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Dundes, L.; Buitelaar, M.S.; Streiff, Z. Bad Witches: Gender and the Downfall of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Disney’s Maleficent. Soc. Sci. 2019, 8, 175. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8060175
Dundes L, Buitelaar MS, Streiff Z. Bad Witches: Gender and the Downfall of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Disney’s Maleficent. Social Sciences. 2019; 8(6):175. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8060175
Chicago/Turabian StyleDundes, Lauren, Madeline Streiff Buitelaar, and Zachary Streiff. 2019. "Bad Witches: Gender and the Downfall of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos and Disney’s Maleficent" Social Sciences 8, no. 6: 175. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8060175