Why the fascination with invisible women?
Why invisible women? I
could write a book on that, but I'll try to keep it brief...
When I was a kid, I used to enjoy watching all
the "Invisible Man" movies. For some reason, I found them much more
fascinating than all the other Horror/Thriller movies made around the same time.
I didn’t realize it then, but later on I realized that what fascinated me most
about the premise was the ‘power’ aspect; to this day, that is still the
aspect of the fantasy that I find most compelling.
Then one day, I saw the 1941 movie "The
Invisible Woman." I think I must have been around eight or nine, and
the movie just totally blew me away. Not only because it featured a female
character, but it was the first "Invisible" movie I’d seen with a
sympathetic title character, that wasn’t a thriller and left a hint at the end
that she had retained her invisibility powers (unlike all the other movies where
the character either dies or takes a reagent, thus ending the invisibility.)
But it also left me with the STRANGEST feelings
afterward; in the back of my kid mind, I kept thinking, "It’s not fair
that a GIRL should get to be invisible!" This, despite the fact that
several movies had already been made with a male protagonist. I felt a bit
uncomfortable and yes, threatened, by the idea of a female having such a unique
power. Yet at the same time, I was fascinated by it. This uneasy paradox
remained in me for years afterward, and I could never quite resolve it until…
Until puberty hit, and then it was a whole new
ballgame. All of a sudden, invisible women seemed incredibly SEXY
to me. I recalled the 1941 movie, and began to fantasize on the
idea further. I've also enjoyed other unusual fantasies involving women
who had become empowered by one supernatural or preternatural means or other.
But of all of these fantasies however, the "Invisible Woman" fantasy
has proven to be the most potent and enduring for me.
I also was very shy (still am, in fact) &
unpopular in junior high & high school, afraid to approach real-life GUHRLZ,
so I began to rely more & more on my fantasies just to try to keep my
sanity. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I began to fantasize about
being seduced by an invisible girl who was absolutely madly in love with me, and
before long, all sorts of variations of THAT theme began to occur to me as well.
In 1983, the new "Invisible Woman"
TV-movie premiered, and I enjoyed it, even though I was disappointed that it
wasn’t picked up as a series. I also wished that it had a bit more of an ‘edge’
to it than it did. But I liked it nonetheless and when it was re-run later, I
videotaped it.
Keep in mind that for all this time, I was
CONVINCED that I was the only one on the face of the earth to fantasize about
invisible women. I NEVER mentioned the subject to ANYONE, except for a couple of
female friends of mine, who, when I told them, looked at me as though I had
lobsters crawling out of my ears!
In March of 1999, I discovered the
"Invisible Girl Webring" and through that, the Femmes
Invisible web site. I was absolutely stunned beyond powers of description to
discover that there were websites (with pictures, no less!) devoted the very
same fantasy that I’d enjoyed for over 20 years, and that I apparently WASN’T
the only one to fantasize about invisible women!
Needless to say, I logged in regularly after
that, occasionally put in my two-cents’ worth here & there and eventually
began to contribute short stories on the theme to its fan-page.
Eventually, more and more story ideas began to occur to me, which I soon
realized would require a lot more space. This website was the
result. I hope you have enjoyed this little fantasy as much as I have.
PGC