Self-Made Man

One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man

by Norah Vincent

Paperback, 288 pages

Published Nov. 20, 2006 by Penguin.

ISBN:: 978-1-84354-504-0
OCLC Number:: 63401088

(3 reviews)

A journalist's provocative and spellbinding account of her eighteen months spent disguised as a manNorah Vincent became an instant media sensation with the publication of Self-Made Man, her take on just how hard it is to be a man, even in a man's world. Following in the tradition of John Howard Griffin (Black Like Me), Norah spent a year and a half disguised as her male alter ego, Ned, exploring what men are like when women aren't around. As Ned, she joins a bowling team, takes a high-octane sales job, goes on dates with women (and men), visits strip clubs, and even manages to infiltrate a monastery and a men's therapy group. At once thought- provoking and pure fun to read, Self-Made Man is a sympathetic and thrilling tour de force of immersion journalism.

7 editions

metascribe reviewed Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent

toxic masculinity v. gender dysphoria

4 stars

Content warning mentions how the author's account ends for her

Despite the dated borderline transphobic comments in passing that sometimes occurs in this book, the majority was true to my own experience. If only I knew then I would later come out as non-binary. The dysphoric-like symptoms Norah experiences towards the end of the book from "pretending" and "deceiving" the people around her regarding her gender can be read in two ways. Well, either as analogous to dysphoria (an analogy I've already implicitly made), caused by the gap between her gender identity or gendered preferences and the gender she is constantly attempting to perform; or, alternatively, as a comment on the inherently debilitating and damaging effects of toxic masculinity on sense of self and emotional well-being. There is probably a bit of both that runs throughout the work, which I think is what makes this account interesting. How do you disentangle the two things? I think this is something I as a non-binary person with selective transfem leanings had to grapple with as I was trying to figure out the source of my distress.

J. J. Zepfanman @...readers reviewed Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent

Review of 'Self-Made Man' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I recognize the apparent stereotype-enforcing faults of this book, but I can't say that I disagree with her assessment of her experience. I'd be interested to know if anyone has a better book recommendation on this topic, because Vincent came across as incredibly brave, strong-minded, and reflective in this memoir. It is not meant to be a scientific account, but a social experiment. In her own words, it is "just my view of things, myopic and certainly inapplicable to anything so grand as a pronouncement on gender in American society."

Simon Scarfe

rated it

Aug. 12, 2011

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