The Female Persuasion: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Greer Kadetsky is at a big party, discussing “the big terribleness” that has just happened to the country with a group of people from the publishing industry. In the wake of the “terribleness,” celebrating has become “essential,” even as most parties nowadays eventually slip into collective lamentation about the reversal of all the nation’s progress and the mounting indignities that have been piling up. This particular party is being thrown in Greer’s honor—her book, Outside Voices, has been on the bestseller list for a whole year now.

Though it is not the first of its kind, Greer’s feminist manifesto is unique in its positive ideology and encouragement of women to speak up and use their “outside voices.” Greer is thirty-one now and has been giving talks all over the country on her book tour. The book is as criticized as it is celebrated, as Greer is seen as a woman of privilege, and her book has come under fire for being for privileged woman. Nonetheless, Greer has been buoyed by the letters and emails from girls and women around the country who find the book inspirational and vital.

Greer is now married to Cory, and they have a baby named Emilia. Greer experiences intermittent moments of doubt in which she wonders whether her book—her life’s work—is “a little ridiculous,” but tonight, as Greer is toasted by a room full of writers, publishers, and thinkers that she admires, she is “struck” by how her book has created a platform for enhanced communication and deeper conversations among women. Greer is full of warmth and pride as she gives a speech and reads from her book while Cory and Emilia, as well as Emilia’s teenage babysitter, Kay Chung, look on.

Greer thinks of Kay—she is young but radical, and though she is skeptical about the state of modern feminism, she looks up to Greer, and Greer is moved by Kay’s openness about her opinions and her desire to investigate the world around her. Kay frequently asks to borrow books from Cory and Greer’s library and devours the tomes Greer gives her with glee and studiousness.

Greer and Cory return to their home in a fancy neighborhood in Brooklyn. They have had an influx of cash due to the success of Greer’s book, but rather than using it to renovate their home, they have been sending the money to Benedita and Greer’s parents. Though SoulFinder was not a financial success, it was a critical one. Cory has not yet “landed” professionally, but it is not a problem thanks to Greer’s success. At home, Greer and Cory put Emilia to bed. Greer gets a text from Zee, who is still in Chicago. The text urges Greer to call Zee; she has something to show her.

Greer calls Zee, and then Zee sends her a link to an internet video. The video features a man being pelted with garbage by a screaming woman, and though the woman is clearly angry, the man only laughs and goads her on. As Greer studies the video more closely, she realizes that the man is Darren Tinzler. Zee reveals that Tinzler runs a revenge porn website now and has attracted the hatred of many women whose lives have been disrupted because of his sleaziness. Zee marvels at the fact that in the video, despite the woman’s anger, Tinzler cannot be “shamed or ruined.” Zee and Greer sit silently on the phone and consider the injustice of it all.

Greer tells Zee that she wants to start a foundation of her own to help combat exactly this kind of cruelty and injustice. It would be different than Loci, Greer assures Zee, and even offers Zee the chance to come on board and help out. Greer thinks about Darren Tinzler, and how his horrible treatment of women makes her want to do “everything possible” to change the way it feels to be a woman. She notes that feeling “capable and safe and free” is all Faith had ever wanted for women.

Greer thinks of Faith often. Greer frequently thinks that she has seen Faith on the street, but it is never her. Greer imagines reuniting with Faith, like a lost person in SoulFinder—although in Cory’s game, a player must actually go looking for the person they have lost.

Faith is now close to eighty and still works at the foundation, though three years earlier, Emmett died of a heart attack while having sex with a young woman. In his will, he stipulated that the foundation should continue, but after ShraderCapital cut Loci’s budget dramatically, Loci became a shadow of its former self. Faith Frank remained in charge, however, and kept things running. Nothing ever emerged about the mentorship program, and Faith continued to dedicate herself to Loci, though in recent years, misogyny has “stormed the world in an all-out, undisguised raid.”

Greer often wishes she could get in touch with Faith and send her the latest updates from her life. She wishes that she could tell Faith know about her marriage with Cory, Zee’s marriage with Noelle, Emilia’s birth, and Greer’s own exhaustion in the face of success. Greer wonders if Faith knows anything about Greer’s book and if Faith has read it. More than anything, Greer wishes she could thank Faith for all that she taught her—and thank her especially for calling her out on that last day at Loci, making it necessary for her to finally reveal the truth to Zee and begin to make amends with her.

Thinking about how she has, effectively, “replaced” Faith Frank, Greer begins to wonder who will replace her one day. She thinks of Kay, her daughter’s babysitter, and how curious and promising Kay is. She occasionally sees Kay staring at her and considering the furniture and objects in the house as if they hold some clue to Greer’s success that Kay might be able to imitate or possess.

Greer thinks about how at Loci, all of the conversations had been about power—as if it could be created, held, and maintained. Greer reflects on how she has come to learn that this is not so, but one can never know this when just starting out. Greer imagines Cory, back in his mother’s house in the wake of Alby’s death, sitting on the edge of his brother’s bed playing with Slowy. As Greer considers how power slips away over time, she wonders whether Slowy the turtle will outlive them all.