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I've read of a phenomenon variously called "Old Woman Syndrome" or "Female Invisibility" and things like that. It's something I've accepted as a fact from attestations based on lived experience, but never quite got a handle on how it works specifically.
What is the experience of a woman feeling the effects of this? In one article I recently read there was a reference to an episode of Grace & Frankie where a store clerk waited on a younger woman instead of an older woman. Other than that I haven't found much in the way of details on how this manifests. I'm curious, for example, what the differences are between how old men are treated in public vs how old women are.
My own (male, city-dwelling) experience is that I feel generally invisible, but not in an upsetting way. I can get people's attention if I need to, but otherwise nobody pay attention or interacts with me. What are the ways that women's invisibility is different from this? Is it something like being more pointedly ignored (rather than the benign disregard that seems normal to me) ? I'm generally looking to fill in a blank like "It's like you went about your day as normal except that people ____" What are some anecdotes that represent this?
Thanks!
I feel like that is where most of my confusion on how to answer this question comes from. As far as positive attention, I don't really receive it. I'm easily ignored when needing assistance at a restaurant or store. I've had people bump into me often and I'm not short or tall, just average but maybe I'm just not a loud personality. Some I attribute to my natural shy away from people habits. Meanwhile, there are some places I go and I am looked at extensively... Followed around the store because I appear to be black. Or routinely cat called and bothered by older men. Thinking on it now I think in my experience, younger populations don't really notice me, older men notice me in pretty negative ways.
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I would like to add that sexual assault depends more on vulnerability than on outward appearance. If anyone reading this is interested in learning more, they can for example google sexual assault numbers of general population versus population with disabilities, especially cognitive disabilities (i.e. people who can't stand up for themselves as easily, or sometimes even can't tell anyone what happened, depending on how severe their disability is).