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Norah Mary Vincent (September 20, 1968 – July 6, 2022) was an American writer. She was a weekly columnist for the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' and a quarterly columnist on politics and culture for the national gay and lesbian news magazine '' The Advocate''. She was a columnist for ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' and
Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...
. Her writing appeared in ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
'', ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and other periodicals. She gained particular attention in 2006 for her book, ''
Self-Made Man "Self-made man" is a classic phrase coined on February 2, 1842 by Henry Clay in the United States Senate, to describe individuals whose success lay within the individuals themselves, not with outside conditions. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Foun ...
'', detailing her experiences when she lived as a man for eighteen months.


Early life

Norah Mary Vincent was born in Detroit, and grew up both there and in London, where her father was employed as a lawyer for the
Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
. She attended
Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
, where she graduated with a BA in philosophy in 1990, before undertaking graduate studies at
Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
. She also worked as an editor for Free Press.


Career


''Self-Made Man''

Vincent's book ''
Self-Made Man "Self-made man" is a classic phrase coined on February 2, 1842 by Henry Clay in the United States Senate, to describe individuals whose success lay within the individuals themselves, not with outside conditions. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Foun ...
'' (2006) retells an eighteen-month experiment in the early 2000s in which she disguised herself as a man. This was compared to previous
undercover journalism Undercover journalism is a form of journalism in which a reporter tries to infiltrate in a community by posing as somebody friendly to that community. Role The role of undercover journalism has become the topic of much debate as moral and ethica ...
such as ''
Black Like Me ''Black Like Me'', first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African-Americans lived under racial segregation. Griffin was a nat ...
''. Vincent was interviewed by
Juju Chang Hyunju "Juju" Chang (born September 17, 1965) is an American television journalist for ABC News, and currently serves as an anchor of ''Nightline''. She previously served as a special correspondent and fill-in anchor for ''Nightline,'' and was a ...
on the
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
program
20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
and talked about the experience in
HARDtalk ''HARDtalk'' is a BBC television and radio programme broadcast on the BBC News Channel, on BBC World News, and on the BBC World Service. Broadcast times and days vary, depending on broadcasting platform and geographic location. ''HARDtalk' ...
extra on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
on April 21, 2006, where she described her experiences in male-male and male-female relationships. She joined an all-male
bowling club Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
, joined a men's
therapy group In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping str ...
, went to a
strip club A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other Erotic dancing, erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or Bar (establishment), bar style, and can also ...
, dated women, and used her knowledge as a lapsed
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
to visit monks in a
monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
. Vincent wrote that the only time she has ever been considered excessively feminine was during her stint as a man. Her
alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...
, Ned, was assumed to be gay on several occasions. Features which had been perceived as butch when she presented as a woman were perceived as oddly effeminate when she presented as a man. Vincent asserted that, since the experiment, she had more fully realized the benefits of being female and the disadvantages of being male, stating, "I really like being a woman. ... I like it more now because I think it's more of a privilege." Vincent also stated that she had gained more sympathy and understanding for men and the male condition: "Men are suffering. They have different problems than women have but they don't have it better. They need our sympathy, they need our love, and they need each other more than anything else. They need to be together."


''Voluntary Madness''

Vincent's book ''Voluntary Madness'' (2008) relates her experiences as an inpatient in three institutions for mentally ill patients: "a ward in a public city hospital, a private Midwestern institution, and a pricey New Age clinic." She criticized doctors who she claimed were unapproachable, noting that too many relied on drugs as therapy, while others addressed only symptoms instead of their underlying causes. Vincent's book also addresses the question of
pseudopatient The Rosenhan experiment or Thud experiment was an experiment conducted to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. The participants feigned hallucinations to enter psychiatric hospitals but acted normally afterwards. They were diagnosed w ...
s and those who remained ill because of their lack of willingness to cooperate in their therapy.


Later work

Vincent later wrote two novels: ''Thy Neighbor'' (2012), described by ''The New York Times'' as "a dark, comic thriller," and ''Adeline'' (2015), which imagines the life of
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
from when she wrote ''
To the Lighthouse ''To the Lighthouse'' is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel ...
'' until her suicide in 2022.


Personal life, views, and death

Vincent, a lesbian, was briefly married to Kristen Erickson, but soon divorced. Vincent was described as a
libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
who was critical of
postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
and
multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
. She did not believe that transgender people were the sex they identified as, leading her to be accused of bigotry. In an article for ''The Village Voice'', she wrote: " ranssexualitysignifies the death of the self, the soul, that good old-fashioned indubitable 'I' so beloved of Descartes, whose great adage '
I think, therefore I am The Latin , usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am", is the "first principle" of René Descartes's philosophy. He originally published it in French as , in his 1637 ''Discourse on the Method'', so as to reach a wider audienc ...
' has become an ontological joke on the order of 'I
tinker Tinker or tinkerer is an archaic term for an itinerant tinsmith who mends household utensils. Description ''Tinker'' for metal-worker is attested from the thirteenth century as ''tyckner'' or ''tinkler''. Some travelling groups and Romani p ...
, and there I am.'" In ''Voluntary Madness'', Vincent details her decade-long history with treatment-resistant depression, saying: "...my brain was never quite the same after I zapped it with that first course of
SSRIs Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions. SSRIs increase the extracellul ...
.” The mental strain of maintaining a false identity during the making of ''Self-Made Man'' ultimately caused a depressive breakdown, leading Vincent to admit herself to a locked psychiatric facility. Vincent died via
assisted suicide Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the p ...
at a clinic in Switzerland on July 6, 2022, aged 53. Her death was not reported until August 2022.


Publications

* ''Self-Made Man'' (Viking Adult, 2006) * ''Voluntary Madness'' (Viking Adult, 2008) * ''Thy Neighbor'' (
Viking Adult Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...
, 2012) * ''Adeline: A Novel of Virginia Woolf'' (
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...
, 2015)


References


External links


Village Voice articles
*Tony Dokoupil

in ''New Partisan''
ABC News 20/20 Program Segment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vincent, Norah 1968 births 2022 deaths 2022 suicides 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American columnists American expatriates in England American feminist writers American lesbian writers American libertarians American literary editors American women journalists American women novelists Critics of multiculturalism Critics of postmodernism Deaths by euthanasia Female suicides Female-to-male cross-dressers American LGBT journalists LGBT people from Michigan American LGBT writers Los Angeles Times people Psychiatric false diagnosis The Village Voice people Undercover journalists Williams College alumni Writers from Detroit