7 journalers for this copy...
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Journal Entry 1 by Ebumu from Ithaca, New York USA on Friday, March 31, 2006
 Gosh. Norah Vincent made herself up as a man and penetrated various different kinds of male sanctum, including the bowling alley, the strip club, the monastery(!), and the men's group. She didn't mess around either, staying for days or weeks in each male space to find out what it's like to be a man.
It's an interesting read. I kept being surprised at Vincent's audacity--a strip club! a monastery!! But I was also surprised at the kinds of reactions she got when she revealed her real gender and her mission. In the end, we get a rather sympathetic picture of what it's like to be trapped in a male body--what things are expected, and what you are conditioned to suppress. Although Vincent started off with the idea that maleness was a ticket to privelege, in the end we're left feeling a bit sorry for the way culture shapes and squashes men. I bought this book with a half-felt hope that it'd help me learn men's secrets and penetrate their exclusive society. In the end I got an equally valuable lesson in how differently men experience the world. I'd like to know what men think of this book (here's one point of view).
Offering this up as a bookring...
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Journal Entry 2 by Ebumu from Ithaca, New York USA on Saturday, April 01, 2006
This book is going out as an international bookring. Bookring participants, please try to read the book within a month of receipt. PM the next participant for an address as you're finishing the book. Leave us a brief journal entry when you receive the book. Post another reflective, juicy journal entry once you've read it. If you're mailing overseas, it's fine to use a slow, cheap mailing method. In the end, I'd like the book to come back to me, Ebumu.
Here's the mailing order, subject to change:
Lisa-B (Germany)
Semming (Finland)
al3xa (UK)
lottiotta (UK)
catsalive (Australia) prefers to mail in Australia, but willing to mail overseas if need be
Doceo33 (AZ, USA)
BlueAmazon (CA, USA) already read it
AnnaLibrarian (WA, USA) wishes to be near the end
dittybopper (LA, USA) prefers to mail to US/Canada
stagecrafty (WA, USA) prefers to mail to US/Canada and to be near the end of the ring
Sistermadilou (NY, USA), wishes to be last.
Finally, back to me, Ebumu, Ringleader (NY, USA)
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Journal Entry 3 by Ebumu from Ithaca, New York USA on Monday, April 10, 2006
This ring is now on its way to Lisa-B in Germany (April 10, 2006). Did you know that tomorrow is National Cheese Fondue day in the US? Isn't that odd!
Edited to add a link to a National Public Radio (US) interview with Norah Vincent.
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Journal Entry 4 by Lisa-B on Sunday, April 16, 2006
Returning back from a Easter holiday visit at my mother's place I found Self-Made Man in my mailbox. Thanks for sharing it, Ebumu!
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Journal Entry 5 by Lisa-B on Sunday, April 23, 2006
I finished Self-Made Man today and I'll be mailing it to Semming in Finland tomorrow.
Self-Made Man was definitly an interesting read. I am not too surprised about some of the experiences Norah/Ned made - like the dating episode or the strip club - and a bit surprised for example about her experiences at the monastery. Very interesting also how Norah/Ned reacted herself to this quite long-term experiment.
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Journal Entry 6 by Semming from Helsinki, Uusimaa Finland on Wednesday, April 26, 2006
I received the book today, thanks! Started reading already and boy this looks great!
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Journal Entry 7 by Semming from Helsinki, Uusimaa Finland on Friday, May 12, 2006
I've had this book for a few weeks and during this time I've managed to use it as a prop in two BC-related interviews! The first one was a group interview for an article in an in-flight magazine and the second was a live radio broadcast on a Finnish national radio channel. Way to go, book! :)
This was an interesting read but maybe not as defined as I had expected. I'm not sure if Ned was spending time with average males, since he tended to end up in places where gender is emphasized (such as strictly male communities and activities), or in places where people are generally not doing well (low paid jobs, some sort of dating services). I'm a female and living happily, but if I went to a women's shelter and a convent, I'd certainly get a different kind of view on what it's like to live as a woman.
However, there were several good things about this book. I'm a mother of a 5-year-old boy and I'm constantly amazed over the violent and non-loving attitude towards boys. A few decades ago, here in Finland, girls and boys were mostly treated as "children" and because of the wars there weren't that many toys and children had to invent their games and toys. During the 80's there was a huge increase of wealth and American impact on kid's toys, behaviour and clothes. In the 70's the girls and boys were able to wear similar clothes, but the 80's introduced strict gender-specific clothing, toys and behaviour.
Nowadays it is almost forbidden to dress a boy in bright colours, to give him a baby doll to play with and excess emotions are bad, bad, bad. The role models on TV are violent and competitive cartoons. Peer pressure is tough and even parents are afraid that their son will grow up queer if he is allowed to be gentle and loving. I just see red whenever somebody says "well, you know, boys are boys" or "boys will like this and that". It's not about gender, it's about people! This was quite obvious in Norah Vincent's experiences as well: many of the men she met had emotional problems, difficulties in expressing their feelings and competition was always a main issue and it all seemed to arise from the expectations they faced as children.
This book was not perfect, but it was definitely a good read and I respect Norah Vincent for pulling a stunt like this. It must have been extremely difficult to balance between identities and relationships. I'm glad I got to read this and will definitely remember this reading experience!
EDIT: Mailed 18 May.
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Journal Entry 8 by al3xa from Swansea, Wales United Kingdom on Monday, June 05, 2006
*catch*. *bookdance*. :) thank you! have begun to read... its fantastic so far... bright blessings!
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Journal Entry 9 by al3xa from Swansea, Wales United Kingdom on Friday, June 23, 2006
my personal and amateur gender&culture critic selves enjoyed this very much, thank you! a very insightful journey which has further opened my beginners gender analysis eyes.
'Every man's armour is borrowed and ten sizes too big, ad beneath it, he's naked and insecure and hoping you won't see.' (150)
'Manhood is a laden mythology riding on the shoulders of every man.' (271)
The psychological effects of the Norah/Ned split where particularly of interest (hmmm... I wonder... NoteToSelf: psychological breakdown from gender splitting crossing as gender&madness discourse...)
sorry this is for my future reference:
'Assuming another identity is no simple affair, even when it doesn't involve a sex change. It takes constant effort, vigilance and energy. A lot of energy. It's exhausting at the best of times. You are always afraid that someone knows you are not who you say you are, or will know immediately if you make even the slightest false step. You are outside yourself in two senses(***Key***). First because you are always watching yourself from beside or above trying to get the performance right and see the pitfalls coming, but also because you are always trying to inhabit the persona of someone who doesn’t exist. You don't have the benefit of a scrip or character treatment that can tell you how this person thinks, or what his childhood was like, or what he likes to do. He has no history and no substance, and being him is like being an adult thrown back into the worth of someone else's awkward adolescence.... When I plucked out, one by one, my set of gendered characteristics, and slotted in Ned's unknowingly I drove the slim end of a wedge into my sense of self, and as I lived as Ned, growing into his life and conjured place in the world, a fault line opened in my mind, precipitating small and then increasingly larger seismic events in my subconscious until the stratum finally gave....'
(Norah speaking from bio/cultdiff F/M not 'human being' stance p.281-2 'separate as sects')
- gender 'transgression' & destabilising discovery of the illusiveness of 'the self'...? which challenges notions of self hence breakdown...? linkable to other past gender 'transgression' & crisis of subjectivities...(the gender identity box is getting smaller in actuality and larger in superficial surface? No.?)
- gender crossing & the wrong body/self effect; temporary loss of the former stable 'self' which did & does exist but is merely temporarily forced out of the body/self...! Displacement. inc. maddening effect of gendered being/seeming split... which could support other literature/culture madness readings where being/seeming split occurs, where the actor is forced from the outside/inside into a false seeming separate from being...
i love the tension between her feminism & her rightful statements 'that men are... victims of patriarchy, too, but... that women have been co determiners in the system, at times as invested and active as men themselves in making and keeping men in their role.' 'men and women are finally agreeing one something: the system sucks.' (272)
thank you this has given my hungry tummy much food for thought! passing on to Lottiotta downstairs... we will be including a photocopied interview with Norah we found which i abseloutely loved!
oh i am running a 'Queer Theory: Gender Theory' bookring if anyone is intersted pm me... cheers, alexa
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Journal Entry 10 by Lottiotta from Swansea, Wales United Kingdom on Friday, June 23, 2006
Ebumu, thank you so much for letting me join in on this one. :) I really appreciate it. Plus it's convenient, no mailing required... :) (For those who didn't know, I live on the floor below Al3xa.)
I first found out about this book from an article and interview in Diva magazine, a lesbian magazine here in the UK. I will try to dig out the mag and get the article photocopied so that it can be passed around with the book, since it might be good for people to find out a bit more, maybe.
This one is now officially bumped up the reading list, I'll probably read the first chapter or so tonight. Thanks again!
25th June 2006
Just finished this morning, and I really enjoyed it. This one sounds silly, but I found the style of writing quite hard to plough through - the non-fiction merged with deep emotional revelations was hard to keep connected to. My brother is coming over today, and I think he's generally pretty good at defying the norms but I'm going to let him read the blurb and see what he says.
I'm really grateful to have read this book, and I'm wondering what the reader-ratio of this book is of men:women - I bet a lot of men and women could benefit from reading this. It just goes to show, we're all social animals and we're all people.
I've just PMed catsalive in Aus for the address, it should be on the way soon. I'll update again once it's posted by surface mail.
4th July 2006
Posted a few days ago. :)
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Journal Entry 11 by  catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, September 10, 2006
Book received, thanks lottiotta.
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Journal Entry 12 by catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
This is very interesting reading but I'm not sure about the conclusions of Vincent's study, or more the lack of conclusion. I suppose it must have been quite confusing throughout. I didn't agree with her outing herself, particularly in the monastery, and I see that Norah/Ned came to this point of view in the end also. It seemed to work out OK with Jim, the bowler, but I was saddened by the monks reactions - what else could they do but forgive. A fascinating look at the emotional life of some men (or is that dys-emotional?) & more than I wanted to know about strip clubs.
Thanks for including me in this interesting slice of life, Ebumu. I'll send it off to Doceo33 ASAP. If I had time I'd read it again to get a better understanding but time & MtTBR wait for no mortal.
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Journal Entry 13 by catsalive from Rooty Hill, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Posted to Doceo33 via surface mail this morning.
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Journal Entry 14 by Doceo33 from Yuma, Arizona USA on Friday, December 15, 2006
I just received this book in the mail as part of a bookring. I am looking forward to reading this one.
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Self-Made Man : One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back
