If it weren't for the sincerity of Ms. Vincent's effort to investigate the human condition, Self-made Man would be nothing more than 300 pages of painful self-absorption. Fortunately for the reader, Ms. Vincent does take her subject seriously and, as a result, her effort here is nothing short of a wonderful exploration of what it is to be male.
In the 1990s, on a dare from a friend, Ms. Vincent spent a night in New York City passing as a man. It was a bit of fun, a game, nothing more, but the experience of that night must have stuck with her because, a few years later, she revisited the experiment, this time with considerably more commitment. Ms. Vincent resolved to spent an entire year as a man, enlisting the aid of her friends and some experts to perfect what would be a nearly impenetrable disguise. From her clothes to her walk, Ms. Vincent spared no aspect of herself in the transformation, even co-opting techniques for fake facial hair that would pass if not looked at too closely. But Ms. Vincent didn't just undergo a physical transformation; she changed her identity as well, adopting Ned as the name of her male alter ego and hanging out with a new set of guy friends who did not know she was a woman. As the year unfolds, Ned penetrates the various sanctums of maleness: the bar, the strip club, the monastery, the work place, all in an effort to discover the essence of maleness. Would they treat her differently as Ned than they would as Norah?
It's a fascinating experiment, but why go to all this fuss? Surely, subsuming ones natural personality for a disguise as complete as this takes a mental toll, like an actor who is never allowed to leave character. Though Ms. Vincent acknowledges that issues around her appearance were certainly in play -- she describes herself as presenting as boyish for a woman --, the knife must cut deeper than this. After all, other boyish women do not devote themselves to this kind of rigorous self-examination. No, her experiment is an effort to grasp, to know, her core identity. It is this central question that makes her experiment so captivating. Even as Ned moves awkwardly through the male world, learning their mannerisms, their rhythms of speech, their methods of expending their frustrations, we watch Ms. Vincent processing what she's seeing and feeling, comparing the input to herself, to her friends, to how she thinks she ought to be. In this way, Ms. Vincent is using an exploration of masculinity, in all its virtues and warts, as a means of exploring what it means to be feminine.
I cannot imagine any mental condition more traumatizing than feeling as though my body did not belong to me. It must be a shattering sensation, a sensation whose cause remains largely mysterious to us. Ms. Vincent's brave undertaking entertains us with its look at manhood in all its debauchery and sexual preoccupation, but it's what her experiment says about the nature of identity that educates and amazes. This is an unusual piece of non-fiction and well worth the read. (4/5 Stars)
If it weren't for the sincerity of Ms. Vincent's effort to investigate the human condition, Self-made Man would be nothing more than 300 pages of painful self-absorption. Fortunately for the reader, Ms. Vincent does take her subject seriously and, as a result, her effort here is nothing short of a wonderful exploration of what it is to be male.
In the 1990s, on a dare from a friend, Ms. Vincent spent a night in New York City passing as a man. It was a bit of fun, a game, nothing more, but the experience of that night must have stuck with her because, a few years later, she revisited the experiment, this time with considerably more commitment. Ms. Vincent resolved to spent an entire year as a man, enlisting the aid of her friends and some experts to perfect what would be a nearly impenetrable disguise. From her clothes to her walk, Ms. Vincent spared no aspect of herself in the transformation, even co-opting techniques for fake facial hair that would pass if not looked at too closely. But Ms. Vincent didn't just undergo a physical transformation; she changed her identity as well, adopting Ned as the name of her male alter ego and hanging out with a new set of guy friends who did not know she was a woman. As the year unfolds, Ned penetrates the various sanctums of maleness: the bar, the strip club, the monastery, the work place, all in an effort to discover the essence of maleness. Would they treat her differently as Ned than they would as Norah?
It's a fascinating experiment, but why go to all this fuss? Surely, subsuming ones natural personality for a disguise as complete as this takes a mental toll, like an actor who is never allowed to leave character. Though Ms. Vincent acknowledges that issues around her appearance were certainly in play -- she describes herself as presenting as boyish for a woman --, the knife must cut deeper than this. After all, other boyish women do not devote themselves to this kind of rigorous self-examination. No, her experiment is an effort to grasp, to know, her core identity. It is this central question that makes her experiment so captivating. Even as Ned moves awkwardly through the male world, learning their mannerisms, their rhythms of speech, their methods of expending their frustrations, we watch Ms. Vincent processing what she's seeing and feeling, comparing the input to herself, to her friends, to how she thinks she ought to be. In this way, Ms. Vincent is using an exploration of masculinity, in all its virtues and warts, as a means of exploring what it means to be feminine.
I cannot imagine any mental condition more traumatizing than feeling as though my body did not belong to me. It must be a shattering sensation, a sensation whose cause remains largely mysterious to us. Ms. Vincent's brave undertaking entertains us with its look at manhood in all its debauchery and sexual preoccupation, but it's what her experiment says about the nature of identity that educates and amazes. This is an unusual piece of non-fiction and well worth the read. (4/5 Stars)
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