invisible woman
SATURDAY POWER GAMES
There comes a moment when a story becomes too large for the space originally created for it.
That moment has arrived for Invisible Woman.
Until now, Invisible Woman and Visible Woman have shared much of the same creative universe. They still have the same author — me — but they are developing different identities.
Visible Woman is where my professional and intellectual work continues to evolve: law, human rights, institutional accountability, artificial intelligence, writing and new ideas. It has its own YouTube channel, and some rather interesting developments are on the way.
Invisible Woman, meanwhile, is becoming something different.
It began as my personal story. A love relationship with a Spanish naval officer serving at NATO. The relationship that became entangled with military institutions, security allegations, international media attention and legal proceedings.
Then came the book.
And somewhere along the way, I realised that the most interesting question was no longer simply what happened to me.
It was something much bigger.
How does power work? And what happens when a woman refuses to play by its rules?
That is why Invisible Woman now has its own YouTube channel.
Introducing POWER GAMES
Every Saturday, I will be publishing a video exploring the psychology, history and human drama of power.
Kings and queens. Emperors and generals. Lovers and rivals. Institutions and outsiders.
And, especially, women who challenge the structures that were never designed to accommodate them.
Some stories will be about courage. Others about ambition, betrayal, loyalty, manipulation or survival.
Because power is not exercised only in parliaments, palaces and military headquarters.
It is exercised in relationships.
In the choices people make when their position is threatened.
In the alliances they form.
In the stories they tell about themselves.
And sometimes in the extraordinary lengths they will go to avoid admitting they were wrong.
Episode One: Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin
Our first episode takes us to eighteenth-century Russia, where a German-born princess seized the imperial throne and faced a rather familiar problem.
She had power.
But how could she keep it?
Catherine II understood that a crown alone was not enough. Her position depended on military support, aristocratic alliances and the ability to make herself indispensable to the machinery of government.
Then came Grigory Potemkin.
A military officer. A lover. A political partner. And eventually one of the most influential figures in the Russian Empire.
Their relationship raises a fascinating question:
Can a personal relationship become a source of institutional power — and can that power survive when the romance ends?
Potemkin's influence did not disappear when his exclusive romantic relationship with Catherine ended. His authority had become embedded in military administration, territorial expansion and the machinery of the state.
That is the central theme of our opening episode: the transformation of personal influence into institutional authority.
And there is a rather delicious irony in beginning Power Games with Catherine the Great.
A foreign-born woman who came to rule Russia.
A woman whose legitimacy was questioned.
A woman who understood that surviving powerful institutions sometimes required learning how to operate them.
I am not suggesting that Catherine was a modern human-rights heroine. She was an autocratic ruler whose expansion of imperial power had enormous human consequences.
But she is an extraordinary subject for studying power.
And that is precisely what this series is about.
Why Power Games Belongs to Invisible Woman
My book Invisible Woman is still being written.
Its story continues to develop through documents, legal challenges, international journalism and the unexpected consequences of a relationship that crossed national and institutional boundaries.
But I do not want the project to become a permanent commentary on my own disputes.
I want it to become a place where personal experience opens the door to larger questions about human behaviour.
Why do people protect institutions that have failed them?
Why does loyalty sometimes survive love?
Why do powerful organisations struggle to admit mistakes?
Why are some women celebrated for their courage while others are described as dangerous, troublesome or disobedient?
And what is the difference between having power and having the courage to challenge it?
History offers no simple answers.
But it provides an extraordinary collection of human experiments.
Some are tragic.
Some are magnificent.
And some are so absurd that no novelist would dare invent them.
A New Saturday Rubric
So here is the plan.
Saturdays are for Power Games.
A new video. A historical or contemporary story. A question about power worth thinking about.
Alongside the series, Invisible Woman will continue developing as a book, with animated chapter stories, music, personal reflections and creative collaborations.
Visible Woman will follow its own professional and intellectual direction.
The projects remain connected by one conviction:
Power deserves to be understood — especially by those expected simply to submit to it.
And as for Invisible Woman?
She is no longer content merely to tell her story.
She wants to understand the game.
Perhaps even change a few of its rules.
Subscribe to the Invisible Woman YouTube channel and join me every Saturday for Power Games.
https://www.youtube.com/@janinawhite-invisiblewoman
That moment has arrived for Invisible Woman.
Until now, Invisible Woman and Visible Woman have shared much of the same creative universe. They still have the same author — me — but they are developing different identities.
Visible Woman is where my professional and intellectual work continues to evolve: law, human rights, institutional accountability, artificial intelligence, writing and new ideas. It has its own YouTube channel, and some rather interesting developments are on the way.
Invisible Woman, meanwhile, is becoming something different.
It began as my personal story. A love relationship with a Spanish naval officer serving at NATO. The relationship that became entangled with military institutions, security allegations, international media attention and legal proceedings.
Then came the book.
And somewhere along the way, I realised that the most interesting question was no longer simply what happened to me.
It was something much bigger.
How does power work? And what happens when a woman refuses to play by its rules?
That is why Invisible Woman now has its own YouTube channel.
Introducing POWER GAMES
Every Saturday, I will be publishing a video exploring the psychology, history and human drama of power.
Kings and queens. Emperors and generals. Lovers and rivals. Institutions and outsiders.
And, especially, women who challenge the structures that were never designed to accommodate them.
Some stories will be about courage. Others about ambition, betrayal, loyalty, manipulation or survival.
Because power is not exercised only in parliaments, palaces and military headquarters.
It is exercised in relationships.
In the choices people make when their position is threatened.
In the alliances they form.
In the stories they tell about themselves.
And sometimes in the extraordinary lengths they will go to avoid admitting they were wrong.
Episode One: Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin
Our first episode takes us to eighteenth-century Russia, where a German-born princess seized the imperial throne and faced a rather familiar problem.
She had power.
But how could she keep it?
Catherine II understood that a crown alone was not enough. Her position depended on military support, aristocratic alliances and the ability to make herself indispensable to the machinery of government.
Then came Grigory Potemkin.
A military officer. A lover. A political partner. And eventually one of the most influential figures in the Russian Empire.
Their relationship raises a fascinating question:
Can a personal relationship become a source of institutional power — and can that power survive when the romance ends?
Potemkin's influence did not disappear when his exclusive romantic relationship with Catherine ended. His authority had become embedded in military administration, territorial expansion and the machinery of the state.
That is the central theme of our opening episode: the transformation of personal influence into institutional authority.
And there is a rather delicious irony in beginning Power Games with Catherine the Great.
A foreign-born woman who came to rule Russia.
A woman whose legitimacy was questioned.
A woman who understood that surviving powerful institutions sometimes required learning how to operate them.
I am not suggesting that Catherine was a modern human-rights heroine. She was an autocratic ruler whose expansion of imperial power had enormous human consequences.
But she is an extraordinary subject for studying power.
And that is precisely what this series is about.
Why Power Games Belongs to Invisible Woman
My book Invisible Woman is still being written.
Its story continues to develop through documents, legal challenges, international journalism and the unexpected consequences of a relationship that crossed national and institutional boundaries.
But I do not want the project to become a permanent commentary on my own disputes.
I want it to become a place where personal experience opens the door to larger questions about human behaviour.
Why do people protect institutions that have failed them?
Why does loyalty sometimes survive love?
Why do powerful organisations struggle to admit mistakes?
Why are some women celebrated for their courage while others are described as dangerous, troublesome or disobedient?
And what is the difference between having power and having the courage to challenge it?
History offers no simple answers.
But it provides an extraordinary collection of human experiments.
Some are tragic.
Some are magnificent.
And some are so absurd that no novelist would dare invent them.
A New Saturday Rubric
So here is the plan.
Saturdays are for Power Games.
A new video. A historical or contemporary story. A question about power worth thinking about.
Alongside the series, Invisible Woman will continue developing as a book, with animated chapter stories, music, personal reflections and creative collaborations.
Visible Woman will follow its own professional and intellectual direction.
The projects remain connected by one conviction:
Power deserves to be understood — especially by those expected simply to submit to it.
And as for Invisible Woman?
She is no longer content merely to tell her story.
She wants to understand the game.
Perhaps even change a few of its rules.
Subscribe to the Invisible Woman YouTube channel and join me every Saturday for Power Games.
https://www.youtube.com/@janinawhite-invisiblewoman
