Middlesex University

Creative Media Studies

Lecturer Prof. Jude Alshahwan

Student Name Abdulkarim Hamo

Student ID #

Submission code CMN6100.1

Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club:

Masculinity Analysis

Introduction
Fight Club, a film by David Fincher, released in 1999, in the depth of the novel by Chuck
Palahniuk, considered one of the most controversial motion picture of the century, it is a
representation of an ultraviolent respond on masculinity, incorporate culture medium,
gender relationship, self-identity, patriarchy and the conflict between individualism and
collectivism.

Fincher is known to create films that are deep and leave you with unsettling feelings as
well as with a big number of ideas that motivate a lot of critics and feedback which
reflect his creativity and his particular insightful vision about our Contemporary Issues,
society and ourselves in a very unique cinematic perspective that can take a place in
the cinematic memory for all time, his art always been an interesting topic for both
audiences, critiques, as well as scholars around the world.

The aim of this essay is to demonstrate Fight Club representation of the contrast
between several versions of masculinity, showing that there is no particular version that
could be adopted or considered superior to the other version.
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

A Brief Synopsis
The film begins with an inside shot of The Narrator’s brain and tracks to the opening of
his mouth where the barrel of a gun is firmly planted. The Narrator is being held captive
by his alter-ego Tyler Durden in an office of a high-rise with a panoramic view of
downtown corporate buildings. The voice-over The Narrator then leads the viewer into a
retelling of events that has led to this particular scene. Much of the first part of the film
centers on The Narrator’s unfulfilling life as a corporate drone who has come to be
defined not only by his work, but his growing collection of consumer goods.

As a recall coordinator, The narrator travels around the country to investigate accidents
for a major automobile company. He shows his detesting of his job and any meaningful
social interactions, The Narrator develops insomnia, which further dissociates him from
reality and communal connectedness. The first part of the film establishes a critique of
the rampant consumerism of late capitalism and implies the loss of Masculine
individualism amidst this culture of consumption.

The Narrator finds a cure for his insomnia by attending ‘‘Remaining Men Together,’’ a
support group for men with testicular cancer. Although he himself does not actually have
the disease, he feels he is able to recover his masculinity by participating in a form of
male bonding that allows him to release his emotions.

Finding comfort in these self-help rituals, The Narrator eventually becomes addicted
and attends multiple support groups for ailments he does not have. But The Narrator’s
insomnia returns when he encounters Marla Singer, she and ironically, he found her for
the first time in ‘‘Remaining Men Together,’’ although she is a female.

but more provocation for the narrator is she occupies his favorite spot where he can
extremely release his emotions with on Bob, they actually both are two individuals of
being victims of capitalism, not to mention that Bob represent a virtual surrogate mother
of The Narrator in his subconscious, with this intention, the narrator had to dispose
Marla, because she became a threat for his hidden femininity and his motherly care,
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

until then the narrator meets Tyler Durden, and this meeting escalate the movie to
further events and calamities.

What is masculinity?
Initially, and before we can further discuss these distinct aspects associated with
masculinity, first we must find out what exactly masculinity is. Although there is no short or easy
standard definition of what masculinity is, there has been a lot of work written on the topic which
provides us with extensive, detailed information about the subject. Most theorists and authors
agree that masculinity is a social and cultural construct and is not necessarily related to gender
specifically. From this we can see that masculinity has little to do with biology and that maleness
is not synonymous with masculinity in every case.

Masculinity through Fight Club perspective:

To understand the context behind the critical treatment of the movie about masculinity
we must at the historical context of the events, when we looked at the era that the movie
represent we will find clearly the term “late capitalism”, this term is commonly defined as
associated expression to describe the world war II, and post-industrial society when people start
to consume more than anytime they ever had before, during that period it witnessed the
appearance of many movements such as Feminists, and the rise of LGBT community.

this makes the concept of manhood and masculinity under The focus of attention by many
theorists who suggest redefining our understanding about masculinity, Jack (Judith)
Halberstam(1998) illustrates this point throughout his book, the existence of the female
masculine so we should rethink again when it comes to our primary constructed assumption
about the notion of masculinity, how it is represented and formed, and she asked again why the
association still solid between masculinity and men despite the impact of feminists, LGBTQ+
about the notion of gender.

The struggle of manhood identity crisis can be clearly shown in Tyler’s inspiring speech:

Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see
all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation
pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves of the white collars, working jobs we hate so
we can buy s**t we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No
purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on
television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and
rock stars, but we won’t and we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very
p***ed off.

According to M. Ta (2006) states that “In the case of Fight Club, Jack’s (The Narrator)
melancholic sadomasochism is the product of what he perceives to be the feminization
of late capitalism; as a corporate drone, he feels victimized by a culture that has stolen
his manhood”.

Which lead us to understand masculinity in Fight Club Characters that our protagonist,
or Jack, the narrator represents the feminist perspective of feminism, his womanized
perception of consumerism, he is fascinated in collecting designer’s fashion, food,
instead of being obsessed of pursuing of power like any other man, he is mesmerized
with luxurious furniture, according to Lizardo (2007): the narrator represents:

“The sensitive “new man” that was made so much of in the mid 1990s; one deprived of
“his substance” and who is consequently nothing, but a soft, effeminized and castrated
version of the traditional working class “breadwinner” archetype inherited from
the1950s.

The narrator feminine behavior which can be explained by the influence of his
consumerism syndrome, even the incredibly detailed shot during the movie, his
attention on his boss ties colors can be a little girly behavior, his double check on Tyler’s
necktie before Tyler go to his work, it more likely to beloved couples not two regular
men friends.

M. Ta (2006) proceeds that “In the case of Fight Club, Jack’s melancholic
sadomasochism is the product of what he perceives to be the feminization of late
capitalism; as a corporate drone, he feels victimized by a culture that has stolen his
manhood”.
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

Similarly, in here “Masculinities and Culture” by John Beynon, he states that it is men
and women’s behaviors rather than their physiological attributes that define their
masculinity or femininity. This means that masculinity is not exclusive to one sex,
however social norms dictate that masculine characteristics tend to go with males and
feminine characteristics go with females. (2002).

In Fight Club this idea is portrayed in the scene where The Narrator attends the
“remaining men together” testicular cancer survivors meeting. The men retain their
masculinity despite having lost their testicles due to cancer.

This is seen particularly in Bob’s character. He has lost his testicles but goes on to join
and fight in fight club to re-masculinise himself. Similarly, masculine characteristics can
appear in women and conversely feminine characteristics can appear in men.
Masculinity is typically associated with attributes such as strength, power, and
independence.

As a result of the continuous struggle inside the narrator conscious because of his
meaningless materialize life, he still encounters many situations that provokes his
manhood, especially the airport conversation right before the separation happened
between the narrator himself who is the rational existence and his superego which is
incarnated by Tyler Durden.

Tyler as a figment of the narrator's imagination, the characteristic of the absolute hyper
masculinity, who represent violence, aggressiveness, even in his first words with the
narrator when they first met, and then the explosion of the narrator’s condo, Tyler and
the Narrator’s relationship truly begins, when they start periodically organizing fighting
meetings every week, and then the relationship really escalated when they both formed
an ultra-masculine “fight club”.

The narrator admires Tyler who fights instead of crying and seeking comfort in support
groups. This strictly male club meets in a basement periodically to fight. The fights are
not about winning or losing but about building strength and confidence and fulfilling a
primal urge which exactly the narrator was suffering from the lack of them, like many
others in this era, which has been mentioned as a crisis of the western world.
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

He decided to rebuild his manhood, by deconstruct everything he believes that it might

be associated with the consuming society that revoke him from his true manhood,
disposed his condo, and other luxuries that might be related to his feminized existence,
he found his salvation by involving into primitive violence as term of sustaining pain that
he’s been looking for in supporting groups, he realized his need to pain, and real
struggle that shape the Ideal man in his thoughts.

In recent times there has been mention of a so-called crisis of western masculinity
which has been mentioned in both “Masculinities and Culture” and “Men and
Masculinities”. Both books recognise the problem as the changing of the ideology on
which masculinity was previously based.

Basically what constituted masculinity a century ago has changed compared with
today’s contemporary western world. Similarly, “Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American
Man” by Susan Faludi concentrates on this victimization of men but focuses more on it
in relation to consumerism which is represented In Fight Club, this victimization of males
seems to be one of the primary reasons as to why the narrator’s mental well being
declines and Fight Club begins. Susan Faludi, states:

Nonetheless the ornamental culture reshapes man’s most basic sense of

manhood by telling him that masculinity is something to drape over the
body, not draw from inner resources; that it is personal, not societal; that
manhood is displayed, not demonstrated. The internal qualities once said
to embody manhood surefootedness, inner strength, confidence of purpose
are merchandised to men to enhance their manliness.Faludi(1999)

However, in the movie we see that after the leverage of fight become global, and
Escalating violence, and the members of fight club started vandalizing some of the
institutions city, and finally the project mayhem, the narrator start realizing this rebellion
association is more likely to be closer to an institution sharing a lot of attributes that a
capitalism incorporate has. Which the narrator has been fighting against in the first
place.

“Sir, The first rule about Project Mayhem is… you don't ask questions sir!.” Bob.
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

In this stage, he realized that no more necessity for Tyler’s existence, even though the
the ultraviolent of Tyler aims to set people free especially men, to liberate the society
from the modern consumer capitalism, Project Mayhem cannot be stopped, he started
to form his new personality, without being associated with Tyler, his mature personality
and his rational sense appeared in the last scenes when he was keen to stop the
project mayhem, despite his advance knowing of the consequences which is losing his
major symbol of masculinity, the castration!, as embraced in the beginning of the movie,
it is the worst potential thing that could ever happens.

‘‘You know man it could be worse. A woman could cut off your penis while you’re
sleeping and toss it out the window of a moving car.’’

and even though he chose to stop it, regardless that was too late, his assumptions
about his identity and masculinity have been upgraded, and his decision come from
absolute free well, a free man,

To conclude that despite Tyler's intention of innovating Fight Club, and then Project
Mayhem clearly to pursue "power" because of his masculinity. Tyler wasn't trying to
make an act of desolation of society, but rather to set other men free from the chains of
modern consumer capitalism.

Tyler as a separation of the narrator's imagination is superego, or he the person that the
narrator want to be but when the narrator was still in his old immature personality, which
happens to be a macho and masculine man, and the death of Tyler signifies the narrator
finally becoming his ideal self- not rejecting "hyper" masculinity because it is no longer
needed in this supposed post-capitalist world he has just created. And, if anything,
masculinity will be needed more.

And that's the point. A free man is a masculine man, and the end scene can tell us more
about his true personality while he was holding hands with Marla in wide shot, observing
the destruction of capitalism dominance institutions, this unique communication
between them doesn’t have any regular romantic hero archetype, nor classic happy
ending kiss, only two free persons, it is the narrator nature, here it doesn’t matter his
Middlesex University
Creative Media Studies

attribute of masculinity, or his femininity, only matter is humanity, which define us as

human beings above all secondary considerations that accumulated along the evolution
of our cultures.

References:

● Halberstam, Judith (1998).Female Masculinity. Duke University Press. pp. 45.

● Faludi, Susan(1999). Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. New York: William
Morrow and Company Inc. pp. 52-53.

● Lynn M. Ta. (2006) ‘Hurt So Good: Fight Club, Masculine Violence, and the Crisis of
Capitalism, The Journal of American Culture Volume 29, Number 3 September 2006.

● Omar Lizardo (2007) ‘Fight Club, or the Cultural Contradictions of Late Capitalism’,
Journal for Cultural Research, Vol. 11, No 3.

● Fight Club(1999).Directed by.David Fincher [DVD]. USA, Twentieth Century Fox.

● John Beynon(2002). MASCULINITIES AND CULTURE. Open University Press

·
Biobiography:

● Greenwood, K., (2003, Feb 26). “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake” .
M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,(1). Retrieved in April. 17. 2018
http://www.media-culture.org.au/0302/09-snowflake.html

● King, C. S. (2009). It cuts both ways: Fight Club, masculinity, and abject
hegemony. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies

● Mark Ramey (2012).Studying Fight Club. Auteur, Columbia University Press

.August 2012