Norah Vincent really did date women as a guy named Ned, retreat to a monastery, infiltrate a men's therapy group, get a job in a testosterone-fuelled office and join a bowling league where, even as the worst player on her team, the other fellows still slapped her on the back, offered tips, and promised she'd get a handle on it one of these days. Her score never did improve. The just thought Ned was hopeless at bowling. They never thought she was a girl. In Self Made Man, an intrepid female journalist goes where no woman has ever dared. The result is an astonishingly sympathetic picture of the male world and how men behave when women aren't around. The ultimate impostor's story, Self Made Man is an enlightening and humane read, as courageous as it is outrageous.
For more than a year and a half Vincent ventured into the world as Ned, with an ever-present five o'clock shadow and a crew cut--a perfect disguise that enabled her to observe the world of men as an insider.