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It’s Even Easier to Ignore Women at Work-From-Home
Don’t like it when the lady folk get uppity? Just mute them
Mike and I decided to watch , an Apple TV+ anthology series providing not-so-magical realism takes on the bullshit that women suffer amid the patriarchy. The first episode stars Issa Rae playing a writer who is invited to meet with four (white, male) television executives who are nominally interested in converting her memoir into a feature film. During the meeting, we observe Rae’s character talking, quite clearly, while the four men stare blankly as if she isn’t speaking a word. Later in the show, she attends a party, and, while her person is clearly visible in the center of the venue, the men repeatedly ask if anyone has seen her. She is invisible.
Mike was confused. What’s going on? Is she really invisible? Is this about superpowers? Is this a dream sequence? Is Issa Rae on drugs?
No, Mike, this is a daily reality for women everywhere. Why, just this afternoon, I invoked the power of invisibility on a work meeting. Over Zoom. Where I was literally facing the eight men on the call with me. I wasn’t sitting at the end of a table, closest to the door, where a person might conceivably be overlooked. I was equal to everyone else, Brady-Bunched in gallery view. And yet, every time I unmuted to give a report…
