When I first read a Salon.com article slamming Nora Vincent and her book Self Made Man, I thought it was a case of a close-minded reviewer defaming what sounded to be a groundbreaking book. Alas, this was not true at all. This book deserved the bad review it received. Vincent finds no middle ground in between biologically determined male and female identities. In fact, at the end of the book, she states openly the universe is built upon immutable male and female archetypes. She relies heavily on stereotypes of masculinity. As distressing is the classism evident in the book: much of her ?fieldwork? patronizes the working class male communities she infiltrates. For a book that is marketed aggressively to LGBT community as a compassionate look at gendered experience, it reinforces the binary gender system that so many of us deplore.
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Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back Again by Norah Vincent
Mara, October 5, 2006
When I first read a Salon.com article slamming Nora Vincent and her book Self Made Man, I thought it was a case of a close-minded reviewer defaming what sounded to be a groundbreaking book. Alas, this was not true at all. This book deserved the bad review it received. Vincent finds no middle ground in between biologically determined male and female identities. In fact, at the end of the book, she states openly the universe is built upon immutable male and female archetypes. She relies heavily on stereotypes of masculinity. As distressing is the classism evident in the book: much of her ?fieldwork? patronizes the working class male communities she infiltrates. For a book that is marketed aggressively to LGBT community as a compassionate look at gendered experience, it reinforces the binary gender system that so many of us deplore.(13 of 18 readers found this comment helpful)