Self Made Man
By: Norah Vincent
Genre: Human Social Behavior
SEX. So, is that really what all guys think about? LOL. Well, according to Norah Vincent, who spent a year and a half living the life of NED, this definitely could describe a good portion of the male population. A primal instinct. Self Made Man describes Norah's social experiment to take a behind-the-scenes look at what life as a man really was like. While she did find many stereotypes, she was very surprised by the social hierarchy, pressures and challenges that a typical male faces.
After intense make-up sessions, speech coaching and an expensive shopping trip, Norah dove into the life of Ned. Ned joined a bowling league made up of a group of trailer-park type men, who surprised her by their non-judgmental thinking, their frankness and friendliness. She remarks that these guys were not prejudiced - they valued people based on merit, and instantly reached out to Ned as a newcomer. He was welcomed like an old friend and would be treated as one, unless Ned took actions to prove otherwise. Later, Ned took on a "red-bull" job as a door-to-door salesman and found a distinct social structure and the "breadwinner" mentality is common among male-dominated groups. There was the top dog, and then there was an underdog. Unwritten social contracts bind each and every male in all sorts of situations. She could see that a lot of these men were suffering because of their inability to express emotion, which often connoted weakness in their mind. To break these implicit codes by demonstrating typical "female" signs (i.e. questioning speech patterns, touchy gestures) pointed to the fact that you were likely gay. Interactions with other females as a male also took Norah off guard. Being on the other side, she saw that women were often curt and suspicious, an extremely different type of welcome compared to those she'd received from fellow males. By joining a monestary as a potential novice, she experienced what life would be like to remove sex, a huge component of almost all other male environments. Again, surprising results. The innate distance that men keep really tore these guys apart! Approval by their peers played a huge part in this environment; issues like homophobia and rank don't disappear behind closed doors. I could go on and on, just read it!
Genre: Human Social Behavior
SEX. So, is that really what all guys think about? LOL. Well, according to Norah Vincent, who spent a year and a half living the life of NED, this definitely could describe a good portion of the male population. A primal instinct. Self Made Man describes Norah's social experiment to take a behind-the-scenes look at what life as a man really was like. While she did find many stereotypes, she was very surprised by the social hierarchy, pressures and challenges that a typical male faces.
After intense make-up sessions, speech coaching and an expensive shopping trip, Norah dove into the life of Ned. Ned joined a bowling league made up of a group of trailer-park type men, who surprised her by their non-judgmental thinking, their frankness and friendliness. She remarks that these guys were not prejudiced - they valued people based on merit, and instantly reached out to Ned as a newcomer. He was welcomed like an old friend and would be treated as one, unless Ned took actions to prove otherwise. Later, Ned took on a "red-bull" job as a door-to-door salesman and found a distinct social structure and the "breadwinner" mentality is common among male-dominated groups. There was the top dog, and then there was an underdog. Unwritten social contracts bind each and every male in all sorts of situations. She could see that a lot of these men were suffering because of their inability to express emotion, which often connoted weakness in their mind. To break these implicit codes by demonstrating typical "female" signs (i.e. questioning speech patterns, touchy gestures) pointed to the fact that you were likely gay. Interactions with other females as a male also took Norah off guard. Being on the other side, she saw that women were often curt and suspicious, an extremely different type of welcome compared to those she'd received from fellow males. By joining a monestary as a potential novice, she experienced what life would be like to remove sex, a huge component of almost all other male environments. Again, surprising results. The innate distance that men keep really tore these guys apart! Approval by their peers played a huge part in this environment; issues like homophobia and rank don't disappear behind closed doors. I could go on and on, just read it!
posted by Mary Lee at 12:09 PM
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