In 2004, after many years of estrangement, the feminist author Susan Faludi’s father wrote her an email. “I have decided that I have had enough of impersonating a macho aggressive man that I have never been inside,” it read. Henceforth, Steven Faludi would be Stefánie.
It was an unexpected transformation. Steven’s impersonation of a “macho aggressive man” extended to stabbing his wife’s new lover in the stomach with a penknife and banging his teenage daughter’s head on the floor. Steven was deeply invested in the idea of being a paterfamilias. Newly emerged at 76, would Stefánie be different?
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