In the winter of 2003, Norah Vincent, a 35-year-old journalist, began to practice passing as a man. With the help of a makeup artist, she learned to simulate stubble by snipping bits of wool and painting them on her chin.
She wore her hair, already short, cut in a flattop, and bought rectangular framed glasses, to accentuate the angles of her face.
She weight-trained to build up the muscles in her chest and back, bound her breasts with a too-small sports bra and wore a jock strap stuffed with a soft prosthetic penis.
She trained for months with a vocal coach at the Juilliard School in Manhattan, who taught her to deepen her voice and slow it down, to lean back as she spoke rather than leaning in, and to use her breath more efficiently.