Invisibility Isn't a Super Power--It's Time for Visible Woman to Take Over

[niyad]

Invisibility Isn’t a Super Power—It’s Time for Visible Woman to Take Over


Anna Maltese is a former animator for The Simpsons and a Visible Woman herself, designing the logo for last year’s Take Back the Workplace March co-sponsored by the Feminist Majority Foundation. In her spare time she trains and competes in archery and kung fu, in case she ever has to repatriate to Themyscira. The model for her Visible Woman is Angel Reed.


Disney has announced that they are planning on developing a new movie in the Fantastic Four comic book franchise featuring Mister Fantastic, The Human Torch, Thing and—drumroll, please—the Invisible Woman. Now, look: I know that as a lady, I’m not allowed to offer up my opinions on things like this, lest I ruin some grown man’s childhood a la Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters. But invisibility is hardly a “superpower” for a woman. It’s not even all that extraordinary. For women, invisibility isn’t a phenomena. It’s every single day of our lives.

Women are made invisible at work. In corporate offices, women don’t get credit for their ideas, get passed over for promotions and then take home only a fraction of what white men are paid for the same job. In every industry, women face sexual harassment and then retaliation for speaking up about it. And in sectors where women do make up a large share of the workforce, their work is undervalued and underpaid. Women are made invisible in the media. The news landscape is rife with sexist stories and chock-full of men’s opinions about women’s lives. The entire entertainment industry is still plagued by sexist and objectifying depictions of half of the population, and women who dare to try and break in are often stopped short by the patriarchy at-large.

Women are made invisible in politics, despite the female candidates who are winning race after race, running in record numbers and—especially in the case of black women—actually doing the hard work of organizing and creating new, sustainable infrastructures for progress. And that isn’t even touching on the ways in which women are then made invisible by our own government, an institution in which men like Brett Kavanaugh—despite his lack of understanding of how the female reproductive system works, despite his trying to force a teen girl to give birth against her will and despite numerous allegations of rape and sexual assault against him—have largely uncontested access to power.
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But Visible Woman gets things done. When a sexual predator is brought to justice, it’s because Visible Woman stood up and said something, and encouraged other women to do the same. When reproductive freedoms are being eroded, Visible Woman organizes the march to take them back. Visible Woman talks openly about her abortion, her eating disorder, her struggles with depression and her plan to vote in the midterms. Visible Woman sits on a lot of committees. Visible Woman did not laugh at your sexist joke just because she felt uncomfortable calling you out. Visible Woman called you out. Right now, Visible Woman is on her sixth cup of coffee and fostering two dogs. It’s 10 p.m., and she really wants to watch the Great British Baking Show, but there’s just one more email she needs to send about the upcoming town hall and she really can’t focus until it gets done. Her utility belt is equipped with markers and a pack of poster paper, in case of sudden protests. Her skin is covered in a revolutionary material that seems to let everything in—all the hurts of the world, all the tragedy and sadness—while also repelling every insult and derogatory comment that gets thrown at her and whispered behind her back. Unlike Tony Stark, she has no electro magnet to keep the shrapnel from entering her heart, but in her case it only makes her powers stronger. Her lasso of truth seems most effective on herself: she’s unable to not speak it to power, even when it’s a noose around her own neck, costing her work or family or friends.
Visible Woman’s real super power is that she sees injustice everywhere she goes—and still gets back up to fight for something better every single day.

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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/10/29/invisibility-isnt-super-power-time-visible-woman-take/

[shenmue]

1. Yay!