"Self-Made Man"

No seguimento do post anterior, sobre o quão prejudiciais podem ser, para os outros e para os próprios homens, as noções de masculinidade impostas pela sociedade, deixo aqui um excerto de um livro que trata do relato das experiências de uma mulher (a Norah) que viveu 1 ano "mascarada" de homem (a quem deu o nome de Ned) de modo a poder observar as diferenças de tratamento que receberia enquanto mulher e enquanto homem:

"I had thought that by being a guy I would get to do all the things I didn't get to do as a woman, things I'd always envied about boyhood when I was a child: the perceived freedom of being unafraid in the world, stamping around loudly with my legs apart. But when it actually came to the business of being Ned I rarely felt free at all. (...) I couldn't be myself, and after a while, this really got me down. I spent so much time worrying about being found out (...) And it wasn't being found out as a woman that I was really worried about. It was being found out as less than a real man, and I suspect that this is something a lot of men endure their whole lives, this constant scrutiny and self-scrutiny.

Somebody is always evaluating your manhood. Whether it is other men, other women, even children. And everybody is always on the lookout for your weakness or your inadequacy, as if it's some kind of plague they're terrified of catching, or more importantly, of other men catching. If you don't make the right moves (...) in the eyes of the culture at large that threatens the whole structure. Consequently, somebody has always got to be there kicking you under the table, redirecting, making or keeping you a real man.

And that, I learned very quickly, is the straitjacket of the male role, and one that is no less constrictive than its feminine counterpart. You're not allowed to be a complete human being. Instead you get to be a coached jumble of stoic poses. You get to be what's expected of you."

in "Self-Made Man", Norah Vincent (2006)

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