Don’t Go Away Feeling Unequal

This essay examines “The Time of Her Time” within the framework of Advertisements for Myself, arguing that the story reveals a conciliatory dimension in Norman Mailer’s treatment of gender and sexual politics. Through close reading, it situates the text alongside related stories to trace recurring figures, narrative strategies, and conflicts shaped by class, ethnicity, and power. While often read as overtly misogynistic, the story is reinterpreted as a satirical exploration of mutual vulnerability and instability in gender relations. Placed in its cultural context, the work emerges as a self-reflexive meditation on masculinity and the shifting dynamics of postwar American life.