Submitted by pwerle on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - 5:57am

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Work is the chapter that impresses me most in regards to Vincent's ability to maintain her masquerade, because of her contempt for every hypermasculine, jingoistic aspect of the process she entered. Knowinginly going into a losing situation like that, working with phony wornout people in a phony worthless job for what amounted to no gain, its amazing that Ned managed to hold off on snapping as long as s/he did.

As soon as Vincent mentioned Men's empowerment groups my mind immediately flashed back to my innumerable high school viewings of Fight Club. "Bob had bitch tits." The chapter went downhill from there, mostly do to my own inability to take it seriously. "A generation of men raised by women" had summed it up succinctly several years before.

Maybe I'm still locked into my masculine barriers, or maybe I'm just genuinely healthy in the head, but I have a real hard time imagining myself being as lost and powerless as some of the guys in Self. There's no empathy within me, and I instantly find myself calling bullshit towards their feelings and faux-rituals. I'm lucky as hell, my parents love both me and eachother, they allowed me to grow as I chose, and they refrained from naming me Sue unnecessarily. I hug people. My hair is gloriously thick and will never bald. I definately feel the pressures to conform to masculine ideals, I actually went to a therapist when I was younger and the main thing I gained from it was techniques on how to prevent myself from getting overly emotional and crying. But I've never felt stifled by those pressures, or honestly that they're entirely negative. I dunno, I guess I stumbled into the environment of the enlightened in-between.

I guess I can be insecure about wondering if I should be more insecure.

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