Going into chapter seven, Vincent was confident about her next step in life as Ned. She decided to attend all male therapy groups which would ultimately lead to a retreat outing in the woods. In the beginning, Vincent assumes that this will be just like any other experience she had already endured; she had no idea that this experience would lead her into a passively suicidal state and cause visions of self-injury. The reader could assume that something more traumatic was going to happen in these last two chapters entitled “Self” and “Journey’s End”, respectively. Also, in chapter 1 Vincent states “I can say with relative surety that in the end I paid a higher emotional price for my circumstantial deceptions than any of my subjects did.” This quote straight out implies that the ending events Ned experienced were emotionally charged and unhealthy with that respect. I think the most important aspect of this that Vincent, indirectly implies, is that one can only fake and deceive society for so long; in the end, it will all catch up to and hurt you more then you could have ever hurt anyone else.
Chapters seven and eight sum up Vincent’s experiment with an in-depth reflection on manhood in modern day society. What she also includes are her conclusions; she reveals that she was prejudice towards men prior to the event and thought that her journey as a man would be liberating. Instead, it proved how conflicted and painful it can be. I found this to be an unexpected twist ending, as I was expecting more of an angry-feminist-smash-patriarchy-at-all-costs approach. Alternatively, she expresses sympathy towards males and hopes that men get the chance at a revolution in the same way women have. Norah Vincent truly reinforced my beliefs that feminism is about equal rights, not superiority of a one gender. She has done her small part in deconstructing gender binaries by attempting to eliminate stereotypes and preconceived notions by commanding a project that really resonates within readers—both males and females.
Throughout the last few chapters, Vincent hasn't really presented any new ideas in the book. She consistently mentions the differences in sexes, puts a lot of focus on sex itself, and always applies her experiences to how men fit into society. Vincent has showed us how men deal with feelings and how they many times feel victimized by society. This can help women and even men learn how to deal with each other in an easier fashion, like how to talk to one another and deal with men's feelings. Some of the actions in chapter seven to be a bit extreme, like the forced hugging and "rituals" the men went through. No one is denying the fact that men also have feelings, but some of the ways they chose to express them seemed slightly outrageous and unbelievable. The first paragraph of chapter seven was a great way to introduce the activities and experiences that happen within the chapter. By introducing Robert Bly right from the start, it allowed Vincent to refer back to him multiple times throughout the chapter and give multiple examples of his philosophies occurring within the group. We would have like to see Vincent address more about the journey into becoming a man. The journey into manhood is one of the key issues of a male’s life. She does briefly touch on this in the beginning of chapter seven, but the focus slowly trails away.
In the final chapter, Vincent includes a great amount of information on how living as a man changed her life. We believe that this information better suited the last chapter on “Self”. Including this information in chapter seven instead of chapter eight would have gave a better understanding about how males understand themselves in comparison to a female perspective. Including this information in chapter seven could have allowed Vincent to end the book on that chapter. This ending would have challenged the reader to tie all the information together and interpret the book in a manner in which they choose.
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