Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Health, Fitness & Dieting, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Health, Fitness & Dieting, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
serinlea reviewed on
Helpful Score: 14
Apologies in advance for the long review...sorry, I'm a big gender theory nerd.
"Self-Made Man" had an intriguing premise and a somewhat interesting execution, but ultimately fell a little flat for me.
The bizarro-contradictory conclusions Norah Vincent draws from this study show that she was completely the wrong person to do a study like this. Ideologically, Vincent follows the mold of Camille Paglia...lesbian, libertarian, and "feminist" only in that she doesn't spend a lot of time around men. After spending 18 months cross-dressed as a man for this book, infiltrating a men's bowling league, a monastery, a strip club, and other male-only domains, this is what she determines:
1) Gender roles are toxic and hurt men as well as women.
To which I say, "No kidding! Feminists have been saying this for at least the last 25 years or so...when was The Second Shift published, exactly?"
2) Feminists are to blame for the pain masculinity causes men, or at least, they're to blame for somehow ignoring the plight of men at the expense of the advancement of women.
Um...no? See above; feminists have been the ones fighting against societally-enforced gender roles, both masculine and feminine.
3) Despite the fact that it's "toxic", gender is so deeply felt that it simply must be inborn and unshakable. Her quote: "There is at bottom really no such thing as that mystical unifying creature we call a human being, but only male human beings and female human beings, as separate as sects.
Look, I'm sorry your experiment in cross-gendered living messed with your sense of self so much that you voluntarily checked into the psych ward afterward, but please do not extrapolate from your personal experience to everyone else on the planet. Also, how in the world does this fit with your other conclusions? Something can be strongly felt -- incredibly so -- without being inborn and immutable.
Despite Vincent's wacky assumptions and prose that fairly dripped with condescension for anyone not an upper-middle-class New Yorker, I enjoyed reading about the nuts and bolts of her experience. I just find myself hoping that other, less transphobic people decide to repeat the experiment and write about it.
"Self-Made Man" had an intriguing premise and a somewhat interesting execution, but ultimately fell a little flat for me.
The bizarro-contradictory conclusions Norah Vincent draws from this study show that she was completely the wrong person to do a study like this. Ideologically, Vincent follows the mold of Camille Paglia...lesbian, libertarian, and "feminist" only in that she doesn't spend a lot of time around men. After spending 18 months cross-dressed as a man for this book, infiltrating a men's bowling league, a monastery, a strip club, and other male-only domains, this is what she determines:
1) Gender roles are toxic and hurt men as well as women.
To which I say, "No kidding! Feminists have been saying this for at least the last 25 years or so...when was The Second Shift published, exactly?"
2) Feminists are to blame for the pain masculinity causes men, or at least, they're to blame for somehow ignoring the plight of men at the expense of the advancement of women.
Um...no? See above; feminists have been the ones fighting against societally-enforced gender roles, both masculine and feminine.
3) Despite the fact that it's "toxic", gender is so deeply felt that it simply must be inborn and unshakable. Her quote: "There is at bottom really no such thing as that mystical unifying creature we call a human being, but only male human beings and female human beings, as separate as sects.
Look, I'm sorry your experiment in cross-gendered living messed with your sense of self so much that you voluntarily checked into the psych ward afterward, but please do not extrapolate from your personal experience to everyone else on the planet. Also, how in the world does this fit with your other conclusions? Something can be strongly felt -- incredibly so -- without being inborn and immutable.
Despite Vincent's wacky assumptions and prose that fairly dripped with condescension for anyone not an upper-middle-class New Yorker, I enjoyed reading about the nuts and bolts of her experience. I just find myself hoping that other, less transphobic people decide to repeat the experiment and write about it.
