Self-Made Man

What shall become of the eternal battle between the sexes? In this controversial monograph, Norah Vincent crosses gender boundaries delineated in culture to discover how exactly it feels to be a white American male. Going a year and half under the persona of Ned, Vincent infiltrated the inner circles of masculinity by passing off in strip clubs, bowling leagues and even in a monastery.

The end product is a compelling account of her journey from the day she first put on her synthetic stubble to her eventual psychological break down. Told in a humorous and casual manner, the reader is quickly absorbed into her adventure – not simply because of the novelty, but also because of the intimacy involved.

Although her experiences were for the most part singular (and she admits it), many of her observations are in fact ubiquitous. “I passed in a man’s world not because my mask was so real, but because the world of men was a masked ball,” noted Vincent in retrospect; and, indeed, who can deny that much of male interaction is subdued by a psyche steeped in egoistic pride? But more important than the observations were the questions brought about. Beyond examining masculinity, Vincent also looks at gender as a whole. Ruminating over how many individuals are beleaguered by unnecessary gender stereotypes, she questions “whether is isn’t almost as impossible for any of us to treat each other gender neutrally as it is to conceptualize language without grammar.”

Ultimately, even Vincent admits that she will never know how it feels to be a man; but her experience has taught her to accept men’s idiosyncrasies with understanding and sympathy, and to appreciate being comfortable with her own gender. Call it immoral, call it a publicity stunt, still one cannot deny the contribution Norah Vincent has made to gender studies by disinterring the sensitive, and often politically incorrect, issues she did.

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Watch the ABC news report here.

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Anon