Thinking Out Loud ~ Are You Invisible?

In her book, We Should All be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes about her experience in a Nigerian restaurant where the waiter will speak to the man and ignore her. She writes, “I know that they don’t intend harm, but it is one thing to know something intellectually and quite another to feel it emotionally. Each time they ignore me, I feel invisible. … I want to tell them I am just as human as the man, just as worthy of acknowledgement.” P.20

NOTE: You may be thinking, ‘Yes, that happened in Nigeria, it doesn’t happen in the U.S. or other western countries.’ I speak from personal experience in academia. As the only assistant professor in my department I could speak, but I wasn’t heard. I quickly learned I hadn’t yet been accepted. I was invisible. Later, in my career, when I was a full professor, I spoke in defense of a woman seeking to be promoted to full professor. The other full professors voted unanimously to deny her promotion. They were angry with me for being the lone holdout. I quickly became invisible to them. Perhaps you’ve had similar experiences of feeling invisible. I’d like to hear from you.