Self-made Man: chap 6-8

The remainder of the book talks about Ned’s experience at work, a therapeutic men’s group, and a final reflection of Norah’s performance as Ned.

Work:
Norah’s workplace encounter seemed to validate her suspicions of men’s interaction. Then again, that’s sort of what she was trying to find. The “Glengarry Gelen Ross” environment she was searching for is one of extreme competition and money grubbing. This also gave her the opportunity to where a suit, which she looks back on fondly, almost, as a way to empower her Ned persona, contributing to the powerful feelings she originally associated with men as a whole.

Self:
Norah’s infiltration of the men’s group gave, what she assumes to be, some of the most revelatory experiences she had during her experiment. Unfortunately, it also contributed to the most guilt ridden performance of Ned during the year, causing her to have a “break down,” leading to passive suicidal tendencies eventually leading her to commit herself to a mental hospital.

This chapter explained to her, in a way that the chapter on dating began to tell, the hegemonic tendencies of both male and female roles in society. This is where she sees her assumptions of men as the willing benefactors of patriarchal dominion fall apart. She realizes those men, just as women do, have to play the role that society has provided them. In this sense, men can’t be full persons any more than women, who have generally been seen as the victims of patriarchy, were allowed to do. It sums up her understanding of women as "codeterminers in the system" on page 272.

Journey’s End:
This is perhaps the most loaded chapter of her book, intentionally so. Though only a few pages long, it compiles a list of all of the things that she has learned throughout the year. She

I’m curious about her revelation at the end. Her break down evoked a response that seemed to reaffirm biological differences between men and women. I’m not sure if I agreed entirely or if I thought that the experience of pretending for that long might have induced the panic she felt.


She talks a lot about how much of Ned was acting the part. She mentions how being Ned was much more psychological than it was physical—how she, if carrying herself as Ned, was called a man regardless of exterior alterations (276). Mostly, though, her experience made her uncomfortable because of the performance aspect of living. I think that this draws Butler into the argument. We, essentially, had a self-identified woman “playing” a man. She was, like all of us, performing gender. This performance, which she “didn’t like” (275), kept her from acting out every aspect of herself.

I’m left thinking that her entire experiment taught her more about the dangers of stifling one’s personality rather than providing a closer glimpse on the opposite (for her) sex (gender?). Still, she starts to understand the “male” position—insofar as there can be a male experience, just as Butler shows the inherent flaws of feminism claiming to represent all women—in ways that I wouldn’t have given her credit for prior to reading the book. I thought that she pegged my own experience in some ways, mostly in the dating chapter, which I assume is at least a little representative of the male population.