About a two and a half years ago I started becoming interested in feminism when a guy in one of my classes couldn't read feminist literature without discomfort. He felt attacked, couldn't take it seriously, and thought that it had no relevance. He couldn't get past his prejudices long enough to see what these books were commenting on.
After that encounter, I started gearing my literary studies toward feminism and women writers, and the further I read into the field (strictly literature, mind you. I leave the theory to the intense folk) the more I realized that, as much as I disagreed with him, my classmate had a point. Not that I think he was being attacked by the feminist movement, or that he shouldn't have taken feminism seriously (or more importantly - been a feminist), but that the role of men in relation to feminism can often be incredibly problematic.
So a year later I got Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back Again by Norah Vincent on a whim. A year and a half after that (also known as last week) I actually read it, with fascinating results. The book itself is pretty much what it says on the tin. For a year and a half the lesbian, feminist, and philosopher extraordinaire Norah Vincent lives her public life as a straight man and decides that it's a lot less fun than she had thought it would be.
