The Myth of the Invisible Woman
Why women of a certain age feel invisible…
By “invisible” I don’t mean we are losing our net visibility. We’re just losing the spotlight of the male gaze.
The ‘male gaze’ refers to the depiction of women from a heterosexual male perspective, often objectifying or sexualizing them for male viewers’ pleasure.
I have to admit that, as I get older, I’m not really opposed to diminishing the male gaze upon me. When I was young, I could go without make up or walk around in a bag and guys would find me.
Not being able to control my visibility was a problem for me when I was younger. I wanted to be a writer and write in public spaces like Ernest Hemingway, but I couldn’t sit at a cafe and write without getting interrupted. I could have really used invisibility back then.
When I think about it, I ask myself, ‘do I really want that male gaze?’. It made sense at one point, but at this point in my life, the idea of being sexualized and objectified and being deemed useful by random strangers (even on the internet) is not fun for me.
Some women feel invisible due to the empty nest syndrome. Their roles change. Their kids leave home, and they start to feel like they’ve lost their purpose. This leads to a kind of lack of confidence that bleeds into all…
