Fight Club

After reading Fight Club and watching the film Fight Club I was confused about how they would be connected to the ideas of gender and feminism. I really enjoyed class Tuesday because it helped me connect the ideas together. I thought it was interesting that the unnamed narrator chose a penguin for his power animal. If he was the typical manly man he probably would have chosen a tiger, bear, lion or a big, overpowering animal. As people discussed in class, a penguin is not very masculine. Some people even said it was not gendered which I agree with. Penguins are also small compared to other animals and are not known to be aggressive. I think the author's choice of the penguin was to show that the unnamed narrator does not think like the typical manly man. According to an internet source, male and female penguins look a lot a like. I also thought it was interesting how much advertising is included in the book. Women are typically consumers in American society, buying the clothes for the children, husband, themselves, decorating the house and therefore buying the furniture and knick knacks. To me, the majority of guys do not care how their house is decorated. For instance, one of my good guy friends moved into his house about 4 months ago and is only using the essentials. He still hasn't unpacked many boxes in his house. I know that if it were me I would have everything organized the way I want it and atleast a few decorations around the house. Another example of the difference between men and women, my brother lived in dorms or apartments throughout college, he never ever put a poster up or anything. On the other hand, I put posters up in my dorm as soon as I could. Decoration and consumerism is more aimed towards women. Toys and big items are aimed more towards men. I know a guy that has owned all the toys imaginable: a hummer, a tractor, motorcycles, boats, cars, trucks, snowmobiles, etc... as they say, "boys with their toys." I thought the talk in class yesterday was interesting and brought up many new ideas.