Chapter 8: Summarizer Kaylee Moore

The ending of Self Made Man was Norah Vincent’s reflection of her time as Ned. She admits that the task was extremely hard for her and that in reality she really did not like it. Vincent also comments that being a man was so difficult for her because she could not be herself throughout the entire process. She states the many expectations she had as she first began her research, but most of them were not fulfilled. She hoped that developing her character of Ned that she would have access to an open and honest world of men. She assumed she would get to probe their minds and find out how they felt when women were not around. However, she acquired the knowledge through her experiences as Ned that men are not as open and approachable as she thought they would be; they are closed off and reserve only their real emotions for themselves.
Vincent was also able to draw a lot of different conclusions about the male subculture through conducting her ethnography research; including the fact that as a man your manhood is always in question. She also concludes that the male psyche was where she saw men at their worst, the example being the way they behaved at the strip clubs and treated the women as though they were pieces of meat rather than human beings with feelings. These views Vincent learned are a direct result of a lack of father-son relationships which she also learned even more about through her experience in a male support group. Men are never allowed to show their emotions because their masculinity would be in jeopardy if they did. The many stereotypes and life lessons Vincent learned as Ned allow the reader to be exposed without bias at how much of a struggle it is for men. Some may be accustomed to believe that men have it extremely easy in life, but with Vincent’s conclusions in the final chapter, their assumptions are proved incorrect as they can sympathize with the stories of the men in Self Made Man.
Vincent also explains the struggle it was for her to keep her female and male characters separated from one another. As the experiment wore on, Ned grew a tiresome chore for Vincent to maintain and her sense of self was also in question. In the end however as she puts it she is more than happy to be living as she was meant to live, as a woman.