The Rethinking the Politics of In_Visibility post #Metoo?

Abstract

This essay offers reflection upon recent transformations in thinking about and under- standing the in_visibility of gendered, embodied selves which is a more digital and a more diverse version of the ‘in/visibility’ of my 2015 text, The Politics of In/Visibil- ity: Being There. Both iterations include the interrelationship between visibility and invisibility. In this essay, using Laura Mulvey’s conceptualization of the gaze, look- ing and being looked at, and Judith Butler’s analysis of the impact of trans politics, I address changes which have arisen since I first worked on in/visibility through two recent developments: The first is #Metoo as a highly effective social media platform, where politics conducted online has had actual, material, embodied effects on peo- ple’s lives; the second includes the impact of trans politics in challenging everyday assumptions about gender and especially the binary logic and embodied properties of sex, citing the example of sport, where bodies matter. Sport has always been di- vided into men’s and women’s competitions, at least since women have been al- lowed to participate at all. Recent changes, subverting traditional patriarchy and the binary logic of sex have been contentious, but also offer exciting new ways of ex- ploring in_visibility in relation to bodies, representational systems and subverting inegalitarian, traditional systems, both actual and virtual, which act oppressively and restrictively.