GQ writer wears pregnancy belly for 9 weeks: “I’m not man enough to be a woman”

Being a lady is no cakewalk, especially if you’re a pregnant lady.

In the hopes of gaining insight into the trials and tribulations of women who are “in the family way,” GQ writer Benjamin Percy wore a 33-pound “Empathy Belly” suit for nine weeks. An empathy belly is a strap on garment that is shaped and weighted like a pregnant woman's belly, designed to give men a taste of what it's like to be pregnant.

His conclusions on the state of womanhood?

“I learned that I’m not man enough to be a woman,’’ Percy tells the TODAY show.

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The novelist’s goals seemed noble enough when he embarked on the nine week mission.

“Maybe—by helping me experience the one thing unavailable to men as parents—it will be more than a costume, but a way for me to alter my point of view, deepen my empathy, help me overcome my mouth-breathing-caveman deficiencies,” Percy writes in the latest issue of GQ.

Percy wore two suits during the experiment. The first was essentially a glorified fat suit with boobs, but the other, designed by Japanese scientists, could be connected to a computer and then adjusted to stimulate the different trimesters of pregnancy.

If you’re rolling your eyes at the idea of a computerized suit adequately simulating the experience of pregnancy, you’re not alone.

Percy tells TODAY that most women he encountered were quick to point out a long list of pregnancy symptoms and experiences which no suit could ever simulate. We’re talking varicose veins, heartburn, constipation and the near constant urge to urinate.

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Percy admits he was surprised by how many women reacted.

“They wanted to jab me full of hormone-oozing needles, essentially,” says Percy. “Once they saw me in the suit, they’re like, ‘Nice try, wuss.’’’

Still for all of its absurdity, the experiment did teach Percy — and hopefully a few of his male readers — a thing or two about the strength of our gender.

When his six-year-old son, watching him struggle to stand in the suit, asks, “It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s hard to be a woman,” Percy responds, “Yes! It is hard!”

Truer words have never spoken.