Norah Vincent's "Self-Made Man"

In “Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Year Disguised as a Man,” Norah Vincent becomes Ned, a “regular” man who, in chapters 2 and 3, joins a bowling league and frequents strip clubs. Vincent examines gender identity in one of the most extreme ways possible, with the help of several physical transformations. The first chapter consists of Vincent’s rationale for the research and how she went about transforming herself to pass society’s expectations of how a man should physically look and sound. I was surprised with Vincent’s thoroughness, from the makeup to the weight lifting. It was interesting the extent to which her outward appearances affected her interactions with others. I especially enjoyed the section in which Vincent notes how when after a substantial amount of time of routine contact with certain people, she wouldn’t be as rigid in her physical appearance, such as not binding her breasts, or going for a few days without the makeup, and the people didn’t appear to notice any difference.

Chapter 2 describes Vincent’s experience on a men’s bowling team in a community league. I found her descriptions of how she interacted and the conversations she had with the men on her team fascinating. I was most impressed with this chapter of the three we read so far. Vincent’s descriptions of how nervous she was to even enter the league proved enlightening. She writes, “As a woman, you don’t belong. You’re not wanted. And every part of you knows it, and is just begging you to get up and leave” (21).

Chapter 3 details the experience of visiting strip clubs, both with friends and alone. I found her opinions on the women workers and the clubs’ patrons extremely blunt, and also narrow-minded. Even as Vincent described multiple strippers’ backgrounds and varied reasons for working at such a place, as the reader, I felt pressured to agree with her extremely negative views on the entire place. I felt Vincent believes there is absolutely no single good reason why a woman would choose to enter into the profession of a stripper, and there was no good reason why men should choose to enter such a place. However, as the reader, we weren’t supposed to separate experiences or reasons, just accept her gross overgeneralizations.

Throughout all three chapters, Vincent had me hooked, for better or worse. I am excited to keep reading and look forward to our class discussion. I am wondering whether Vincent’s personal experiences in these situations reflects our own understanding of male sexuality? Does it reinforce what people already believe? Or does it present a different argument? In what way does Vincent’s background and education alter her opinions on the situations she experiences?