Quiz-Chapter 1: Kaylee Cardinal

1.) The first time Norah Vincent tried passing as a man in public, she stated that she learned so much for only being dressed as a male for a few hours. However, she says she wasn’t ready to do something like this for much longer at the time and therefore filed the information away for a few years. Do you think Vincent’s observations would’ve been different if she would’ve gone through with becoming a male years earlier? Explain.

Answer: Yes I think that Vincent’s observations would’ve been a lot different. I feel that age makes a big difference. Relating back to My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan, I think that her thoughts and observations would’ve been a lot different too if she was younger than fifty years old. There is no way that any fifty year old person can put themselves in a college students body and understand what is going through their minds. Along the same lines, even though it wasn’t that much longer that she decided to try it again, I still think things would’ve been different. The younger she would’ve been the more different her outlook on things would’ve been.


2.) What is one thing that Vincent talks about regarding stereotypes or gender identity? Do you think that this is common still today and does it impact women at all?

Answer: One topic Vincent talks about regarding gender identity is the way males look at females and how they act towards them. She mentions how men would sit outside on stoops in the neighborhood and stare at woman as they walked by. Men would sit and stare at women from head to toe but eventually the woman just got used to it and didn’t think twice when it happened. In my opinion, this is very common today, not by all men, but it is definitely seen by some. It is a common saying that men look at women like a “piece of meat” and they don’t even care who they are or what they look like. I think at first it may affect women because they may wonder if something is wrong with them, but after awhile they will most likely get used to it and realize that is just how some men are.


3.) On page 19, Norah Vincent refers to her experiment as “meddling”—why do you think she labels it as this? Do you agree?

Answer: I think Norah Vincent says that this research that she is doing is meddling because it interferes with her personal life a lot. She obviously ends up changing a lot about herself, but physical and mental, and so it is probably hard for her to technically have two minds. She has to act like a man and try to see things that men do, yet still take notes and make observations for the research she was doing. I’m sure she got very tied down at times. However, it was her choice to do this and she had always been interested in a man’s world, so to describe it as meddling may be a little much and a word such as hectic or demanding may be a better declaration.


4.) Norah Vincent describes to us what the remaining chapters will be about and what experiences she will be encountering in the rest of the book (such as joining the bowling team, the strip club culture, dating, and working as man). Do you think that she chose the right topics?

Answer: The fact that Norah Vincent is putting herself in all of these difficult situations really impressed me. I am somewhat nervous to find out what happens and I bet the situations she was in were really hard for her so I give her a lot of credit. I feel that all of the topics she chose about were great and we are going to get a sense of every aspect of a man’s life. Had she not taken these risks, the book definitely would’ve suffered a bit.