Self-Made Man

"Self-Made Man" was written by Norah Vincent, a columnist for the L.A. Times who quit her job to see what it's like to live as a man for eighteen months. The experiment was social, not personal- she wiped off her fake stubble when she got home from her job selling coupon books door to door, or bowling league, or her umpteenth bad date. Vincent expects that she'll uncover a world of privilege and freedom she'd never been able to experience as a woman, but soon realizes that men are forced into roles that are just as restrictive and unhealthy as those imposed on women. While most of these restrictions- particularly the discouragement of displaying emotion or weakness- are imposed by other men, Vincent reports that women are not only complicit in reinforcing these restrictions, but also hypocritical for getting upset when men aren't emotional enough, and self-righteous for acting as though women have a monopoly on the healthy display of feelings. Over the course of reading this book I cycled between sympathy for men have to put up with and irritation that I should be expected to feel sympathy when it still seems like they've gotten the better side of the deal for the past few millenia, not to mention in the division of reproductive duties. But ultimately I reached the same conclusion that Vincent does- I'd never been so grateful to be a woman.