In Fear Of Flying, Nada speaks a lot about feeling invisible and even purposely making herself invisible to make the men around her feel better about themselves (isn’t patriarchy great…). Our thread today asks you the question: how have you made yourself invisible? And how did you break out of that mindset?
So many ways, but the one that cuts deepest is my loss of voice on every level. Learning to hate the sound of my own tones to the point I could no longer make them. Then words left me. I abandoned writing, singing, even speaking, once for an entire year. I turned to dance and fiber arts as self expression and they carried my soul until I was safe enough to write again in my 30s. I wrote but still could not share my words, that would take longer. Now finally, oh glory at last, I reclaim my full singing voice, all 3 octaves, after denying myself so much free joy through decades of existence to make myself palatable to patriarchy.
So many ways, but the one that cuts deepest is my loss of voice on every level. Learning to hate the sound of my own tones to the point I could no longer make them. Then words left me. I abandoned writing, singing, even speaking, once for an entire year. I turned to dance and fiber arts as self expression and they carried my soul until I was safe enough to write again in my 30s. I wrote but still could not share my words, that would take longer. Now finally, oh glory at last, I reclaim my full singing voice, all 3 octaves, after denying myself so much free joy through decades of existence to make myself palatable to patriarchy.