I continued my reading of Self –Made Man by Norah Vincent on to the fifth chapter titled “Life”. In this chapter, Ned decides to take himself far away into a Catholic monastery with a bunch of male monks. She decided to go here as a kind of foil to her time at the strip clubs. The strip clubs enhanced and empowered a mans sexuality, but she wanted to see the other extreme of it, and witness what happens when that is taken away by chastity. Overall, the audience was able to see how male emotions and physical contact had to be forced among one another. Also, Ned’s femininity started to show through even more in this all male environment, which completely shocked her. She developed relationships with some of the members of different degrees and in the end, made a confession to a few of them about her true identity. Chapter six was labeled “Work” and as the name implies she applied for jobs at different male centered type of workplaces. The work she was doing was not glamorous, as it basically consisted of selling items door to door, and the competiveness and roughness of the male attitude in the workplace. Chapter seven, “Self”, took a deeper look at herself as she began attending meetings for a type of all male support group, as in a men’s movement or secret male society. There the men were able to let out their feelings and discuss them, as well as the stereotypes society has placed on them and the feelings of disappointment in the eyes of their fathers. She ended up going on a retreat with the guys into the forest as part of a catharsis, but it ultimately pushed her over the edge and she needed help in the form of going to the hospital as her project ended in her last chapter. Most of the last chapter was a reflection on the whole journey overall and what she learned from it.
My own thoughts on the fifth chapter was that it was very interesting, the whole idea of a monastery to me because I am not really affiliated with a religion, so their views and some of the things expressed in this chapter, I couldn’t really relate to. I also found it extremely hard to differentiate between all the different guys and there names because there were a lot of them, and oddly enough, a lot of them seemed gay. The sixth chapter I found interesting, but I didn’t really like the side of male stereotypes it represented. The “nine-inch dick” concept that Vincent mentions really showed through in this chapter, as well as the competitiveness. Ivan was not my favorite character, and I think it was completely wrong of them to try to use the pregnant girl the way they did. The seventh chapter overall was probably my favorite, because of how in depth it went to uncover the real emotional challenge of being a man and carrying the world on their shoulders. I thought some bits of it were really comically, like when she was contemplating all these dangerous weapons, and they just turned out to be plastic. I also thought the whole retreat was very interesting, and definitely a look at something no other female would probably ever get a chance to witness. In the last chapter, I think she did a great job concluding her project although it didn’t end in the way she quite anticipated. Overall I think this is an outstanding journey Vincent has portrayed in an interesting light, and it offers great perspectives on the world around us and the challenges as well as the stigma with gender roles and the stereotypes that accompany them. Glad I got to experience this book for this project and I’m excited to present it and share what we’ve witnessed with the class.
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