Fight Club gender roles

Now having seen the movie in addition to having read the end of the novel “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk, the themes engraved in the plot are much clear to me. I had trouble understanding how femininity plays any role in this work, but through class discussion on Tuesday, which never touched upon the ending of the novel or film, it started to make sense. I watched the movie the following day and towards the end of it I realized Marla represents how males treat females unequally, as has been the case for centuries and centuries. The main character remains nameless and is not directly shown demeaning Marla through his masculinity, but Tyler Durden, his other self, makes several sexist remarks aimed at Marla. Tyler only uses Marla to satisfy his sexual “needs”. In the film, the only time he spends with her one on one is in his bed having sexual intercourse. Afterwards, when technically he is speaking to himself, he says how she annoys him and wants her to leave whenever they are done having sex. Marla still sticks around even with his dual personality. By staying around she is giving into masculinity. She lets herself be vulnerable and be taken advantage of by both of the main character’s personalities. When he is Tyler, he makes loves to her and tells her sweet words while they are in the middle of the act, but after they are done, he turns back into himself and looks at her as Tyler’s girl. Because of his confusion he ends up always making her feel unwelcome and gives her no tenderness whatsoever. Although we only find out at the end that he does so because of his disorders, in both the film and novel, Marla takes this emotional beating until the very end when his problems finally become too much. Despite this, she still is there for him at the end even though she is clueless as to what the situation with him really is. Femininity is being oppressed in the film. The “fight club” is like an all male army where females have no place and where only one man’s opinion rules. The women in the film, mainly Chloe and Marla, are weak, dependant, emotionally unstable, vulnerable, and depicted as being clueless. Of course, the author of the novel lets us know how things end up when there are no voices of reasons from females. The last scene in the movie, which is the most memorable one to me, summarizes what happens when masculinity dominates and femininity is oppressed. The city is blown up and destroyed, and it happened due to a single man’s confusion.