The Experiment

[uno,dos,3]

This is my serious side (seriously).

I'm always curious about gender issues. I believe many issues are 'people' issues but media bombards us until some issues, rightly or wrongly, become associated with a specific gender. As I've aged I have noticed that I seem to have become more anonymous in public. Frequently I've heard that many 'older' women become invisible in our society. My 69th birthday is coming up and I've had a ponytail for 50 years, with the exception of a brief stint in the army, where it turned out ponytails were frowned upon. Anyhow, my ponytail no longer seemed to offend people, so I had it cut off. I then proceeded to go about my daily routine. Exactly 4 younger people who I know, out of over 25 people, noticed that the ponytail was gone the first time they saw me...which to me was an indication that that they never really looked at me. One of my sons 'saw' me 3 times before noticing the ponytail was gone.  

Now I'm not claiming that my little experiment has any scientific validity...or that age was positively the determining factor in my invisibility...but I kind of feel like I'm fading away. 

[blithe spirit]

Maybe the cloaking switch is hidden behind the ponytail and the beard.

[Lifesighs]

There was a time when I felt invisible at work, a middle aged woman that no one listens to. I realized that was my fault so I started asking questions in meetings that I wanted answers for and voicing my opinion to my bosses, my actual honest opinion. They started listening and I dropped my cloak of invisibility.

[ProblemAgain]

i dropped my cloak of invisibility too.....i guess i should have worn something else under it. my court date is next wednesday