Posted on 01/08/2006 10:36:51 PM PST by nickcarraway
As a woman, New Yorker Norah Vincent was used to being stared at by men she passed in her Village neighborhood. It's a way men "assert their dominance," she says.
But she often wondered what was behind those stares. So she conducted an experiment.
Like John Howard Griffin, who disguised himself as an African-American in the South of 1959 for "Black Like Me," and Gregory Peck playing a writer posing as a Jew to investigate anti-Semitism in the Oscar-winning "Gentleman's Agreement," Vincent went undercover.
With makeup, workouts, wardrobe and a voice coach, she became a man and plunged into a world she had only known from the other side.
The result is a book, "Self-Made Man" (Viking, $24.95), in which Vincent, a journalist, tells how she used her childhood nickname, Ned, and joined a men's bowling league; went into the woods with nearly three dozen guys for a touchy-feely retreat; got a job with a testosterone-fueled sales force; and hung out with her guy pals at strip clubs.
She even went out on some dates with women, although Vincent revealed her true identity before things went too far.
To transform herself into a convincing man, Vincent, who's gay, glued tiny clippings of synthetic hair to her face for a 5 o'clock shadow, and got a flat-top haircut. She bound her breasts with a cupless sports bra and wore loose-fitting clothes and layers, lifted weights and consumed a lot of protein.
She even wore a prosthetic penis in a jockstrap.
In the end, Vincent was surprised by her stereotype-defying discoveries, which included:
* It's men who frequently suffer rejection — and supposedly emotionally in-tune women are extraordinarily self-absorbed.
* Although men are supposedly the dominant species, it's women who dominate most dating conversations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The term "gal' is used loosely, very loosely.
She has not a clue, doesn't she?
A man, like wine, looks better as he ages, stays in the sun and get scarred by life.
A lesbian just becomes an ugly broken down thing overnight.
today's word twister:
anything to strap the strap on on.
Did she wear an Algore Prosthetic Crotch Enhancer?
And this is news? I met some butch lesbians in Atlanta that did the same thing all the time.
Yep, I agree.
The world of black activism missed the boat when they decided not to embrace Booker T. Washington's ideas as he described them in his book. A very good read.
No kidding. It can be downright stressful at times, let me tell you.
"I listened to them talk literally for hours about the most minute, mind-numbing details of their personal lives," Vincent writes. "Listening to them was like undergoing a slow frontal lobotomy."
This woman is an acutely observant journalist? Maybe I'm missing something here, but she could have learned this -- or should have known it -- without bothering to disguise her gender. All she had to do was to listen to her female friends. Or has she somehow convinced herself that women only act this way in the presence of men?
HIGHLY DUBIOUS.
..... Toby, from the men's self-help group she joined, "was built like an English bulldog, with wide lats, burly shoulders and a tiny waist." But he moaned, "Every time I come into a room or restaurant, especially with other guys, I can see the fear on their faces, like they think I'm going to hurt them. They assume I'm violent because of the way I look."
Good grief she hung out with gays not guys.
Lifting weights and eating protein wouldn't make her look "manly." She'd also have to run a lot of miles to get rid of her baby fat before any muscles would be evident (and probably have to ask Marion Jones for some 'roids, just in case). This whole experiment sounds like a large heaping helping of Barbra Streisand.
Figures ... A butch diesel-dyke hanging out with a bunch of effeminate 'men' thinks it learned something. It would be humourous if it weren't tragic.
"She even went out on some dates with women, although Vincent revealed her true identity before things went too far. "
I'm wondering what the lesbian author's definition of "too far" was - and if her female dates shared that same definition.
Yuck!
I think in her case, the more usual term would be 'strap-on' ...
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