The Fall of Phoebe Gates and the Irresistible Fantasy of the Feminist Icon

Phoebe Gates had it all. She was young, beautiful, and the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates. To say she grew up privileged would be a dramatic understatement. She grew up with unfathomable wealth and countless connections to the world’s most powerful people. On top of this, she was perfectly aligned with orthodox leftism, even earning the “Rising Reproductive Freedom Champion” award.

All of this is to say that she could have done anything she wanted. She could have married, become a doctor, and raised horses like her sister, Jennifer. Or she could have stayed single and become an academic, living the quiet life like her brother, Rory. Or, seeing that she had a more extroverted disposition, she could have become a celebrated philanthropist, attending galas and writing memoirs like her mother, Melinda.

Instead, she opted to strike out on her own and earn a fortune creating sketchy software—a bit like her father, Bill. And so, after meeting up at Stanford University, Phoebe Gates and celebrity climate activist Sophia Kianni decided to join forces and found the company Phia, which created a shopping app allowing price comparisons for various merchandise.

It turns out the app was allegedly sticking trackers on users and improperly gleaning money off of their transactions, something that is known as “cookie stuffing.” According to tech expert Star Kashman, if Gates is found guilty of knowingly doing this, she may suffer criminal penalties—the maximum sentence would be 20 years in jail—or be sued by affected parties.

Although Gates has not commented on this allegation, a brutal exposé in Bloomberg suggests that she and Kianni knew what was happening for at least seven months prior. Their main engineers—since neither of them actually know much about designing software themselves—informed them of the issue; yet they went ahead with keeping the bug in place since, in Gates’ words, “this is SUPER core to rev [revenue].”

While most people will probably relish the possible downfall of an entitled woman like Phoebe Gates, it is an open question as to what motivated her to create this kind of start-up in the first place. She already had everything she could possibly want, so why bother with something that seems scammy from the beginning? Why couldn’t she cut her losses, take a nice, relaxing break, and try another business venture later?

Clearly, this was not about the money, much less creating something of value. Rather, Gates wanted to follow the example of elite women. Not content with being benefactresses to society, doing honest work, or enjoying some happy combination of domestic bliss and luxury, they are desperate to become feminist icons—see the careers of MacKenzie Scott Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, Kathleen Kennedy, or Laurene Powell Jobs. As such, their lust for progressive virtue signaling knows no bounds. They must be front and center for every leftist cause, even if it means engaging in shady schemes and associating with corrupt individuals. 

Phoebe Gates obviously took her cue from these women—Sandberg was an enthusiastic investor in Phia—and attempted to become the supreme Gen Z girlboss. But, in a 21st-century version of the Icarus myth, Phoebe virtue signaled too close to the woke sun and burned her feathers of privilege. Despite the obvious hypocrisy, she, the daughter of a zillionaire, would hawk a product that would help plebeian shoppers compare prices and save money, and she would look good doing it.

Yes, she will likely fail greatly; but then again, she dared greatly and will likely receive more sympathy than scorn if she is found guilty of cookie stuffing. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that she will face any actual punishment. For if anyone could claim to be a card-carrying member of the Epstein class, it would be Phoebe Gates. As writer and lawyer Jeff Childers recently noted, not only was her father closely connected with Jeffrey Epstein but the owner of the paper that leaked her messages, Michael Bloomberg, was also closely connected with him.

And yet, for all the vitriol leftists spew for this particular cabal of elites, few of them will have anything to say about the Gates family. No modern-day Jacobins will roll out the guillotines for Princess Phoebe. After all, she and her family have patronized many of them for decades.

Nevertheless, Phoebe Gates’ high status does not make her immune to criticism, nor does it mean that there is nothing to learn from her story. Instead of becoming an icon of feminist triumph like she hoped, she has become an icon of feminist hubris. Thoroughly indoctrinated in progressive ideology and overconfident in her abilities, she tried to become a tech mogul like her father by peddling a useless browser extension that worked like a computer virus. And despite the countless signs that this was a bad idea, she was encouraged every step of the way by everyone around her.

Hopefully, this cautionary tale will finally put this ridiculous dream to rest in today’s culture. Success takes on many forms, and children should understand this by the time they finish their education. They should not fall into the trap of seeking quick and easy fame and fortune. Instead, they should dedicate their lives to cultivating virtue, being productive, and sacrificing for those around them. Occasionally, this might mean that they live out their lives in the shadow of their parents and face constant accusations of unearned privilege. But this is far better than potentially being a criminal embarrassment who squandered all her advantages for a morally and intellectually bankrupt ideology.