Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
by Norah Vincent
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Book Summary Information
Author: Norah VincentEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-12-26
ISBN: 0143038702
Number of pages: 287
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
Book Review: A good description of males through the female mind.
Summary: 5 Stars
The author dresses as a man and joins men's groups, to see what it's like, basically a male Tootsie.
In the 1st section, the author joins a bowling league. This part was kind of dry for me. Her bowling team is high school graduates, committed to family/God/country. Given the authors lesbian/atheism beliefs, there isn't a lot of common philosophy. Yet, she does empathize with them.
The 2nd section describes her trying to be a single male who wants to meet a woman. The author goes to singles bars and tries to talk with women. The author receives alluring come-hither looks, approaches the woman given them, only to be scorned and rejected once s/he approaches the person giving the invitation.
Did you see the movie Tootsie? Jessica Lang's character confides in a woman, who's actually Dustin Hoofman. She says "I get tired of the mind games. If only a man would walk up to me, tell me i'm attractive, and let me know he's interested in a relationship. I'd really like that."
So, Hoffman does that, only to have Lang get angry and throw a drink in his face. That's the gist of the 2nd chapter. But the author adds much more color and insight to her descriptions.
The author analyzes and discusses the many mind games women play in the singles situation. The women talk about how difficult it is to meet men, but they don't make the process of man introducing himself easy, which would be in the woman's best interest.
The author knows its illogical, and she's surprised the women she meets don't see how illogical their thinking truly is. But she takes it further, trying to figure out why women want to meet men, and then when they go out to do just that, make it difficult for the men to approach them.
The author admits she never noticed it until she walked in the man's shoes, making that difficult first approach to a strange woman, only to have the woman quickly judge and dismiss him.
She concludes that women can be their own worst enemy when trying to meet men, because they make the process of men introducing themselves so awkward and full of judgment of the men trying to break the ice. The result is that only the professional pickup artists act in the way the women expect. So the women fall for the pros. Then the women are hurt that the pros don't call and don't commit.
The 3rd section describes her getting a job as a door-to-door salesman, with 20 year olds who have no college education and little concern for others. These are your males who are 25 years of age, but 14 years of maturity.
The 4th section describes men's emotional awareness movements, and how they try to become aware of their emotions and feeling about life.
As a married man, i really couldn't relate to these groups of men. I don't bowl, i don't sell, and i don't belong to an emotional man's group. I fled those situations just like the author did. I agree with her conclusions. I never established friendships with those types of guys, so i can understand her critical view of them.
I wish the author could have analyzed a 4th group of men, maybe doctors or booksellers or actors or pharmacists; men with education. She needed to include men with perseverance, determination and mature human qualities. Because she doesn't include these, her viewpoint is based on a flawed sample size of males.
But overall, it's a good book with good insights. The author's conclusions are one person's opinion, but she's a smart, and her insights are interesting. Recommended.
Summary of Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
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.
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