Review
From the book jacket: Norah Vincent absorbed a cultural
experience and reported back on what she observed incognito. For more than a
year and a half she ventured into the world as Ned, with an ever-present five o'clock
shadow, a crew cut, wire-rim glasses, and her own size 11 1/2 shoes—a perfect
disguise that enabled her to observe the world of men as an insider.
Norah uses her intimate firsthand experience to explore
the many remarkable mysteries of gender identity as well as who men are apart
from and in relation to women. Far from becoming bitter or outraged, she
ended her journey astounded—and exhausted—by the rigid codes and rituals of
masculinity. Having gone where no woman (who wasn't an aspiring or actual
transsexual) has gone for any significant length of time, let alone eighteen
months, her surprising account is an...
Beyond the Book
Nora Vincent says..... "Being able to incorporate the lessons of
manhood into womanhood is, I suppose, one of the best examples of how my concept
of womanhood changed because of Ned. In my view, this is the greatest liberation
of feminism, a liberation that men haven't yet experienced in their own roles.
They haven't really been allowed to express traditionally feminine qualities,
and they are limited as a result. Having lived as both a man and a woman, it
seems to me now that the definition of womanhood, at least as I live it and as I
believe our culture defines it, is so much larger, can happily encompass so much
more, than the definition of manhood. I can borrow from the boys—wardrobe, mien,
temperament—and still be all woman. The reverse is not...
