Madness in the context of Vandover seems to be rooted in his carelessness and lack of self-accountability, and it’s interesting how that ‘madness’ is conflated with misogyny and toxic masculinity. It his, as well as his friends’, harmful beliefs that the lack of patriarchal policing of women (along with their vices such as excessive self-indulgence via drinking and eating) is what contributes to their “wildness” or “bruteness.”