Gender and Fight Club

i really enjoyed today's class discussion about fight club. There were so many different themes that were mentioned in the book, and we seemed to have covered many of them. I like the author, and his way of writing very much. I had read Invisible Monsters even before i read fight club. Invisible Monsters is quite the opposite of fight club. Its about a model who gets her jaw blown off, and they cannot replace her jaw. So instead she walks around, missing a jaw. No one wants to look at her, thus she is "invisible" and even steals a frozen turkey from a grocery store. The author has a very blunt way of writing that makes you really think about things outside of the norm. I like this very much.

One of the topics that was talked about in class was the idea that Fight Club completely left out the idea of women being surpressed. I could understand how alot of people could have felt that way, but i somewhat disagreed with this arguement. Yes, the book may have been about a male domninated anarchy where only men came to fight and rebel...but i also think that the marla singer character was a symbol for women doing the same thing. She was not the typical "lady." In fact, she was quite the opposite. Marla does not care what other people think of her. She does as she pleases and does what she believes in. She is attracted to the idea of death, thus she used to work in a funeral home, and now she attends terminal illness support groups. Perhaps the perfect example of her "unladylikeness" could be when she attends the testicular cancer support group. There is no possible way taht she might have testicular cancer, but i think the symbolism of her being there is to put her on the same level with the narrator. This is why Marla and Tyler Durden are so perfect for one another.

To go further, i would also say thats its very interesting that Tyler gets so frustrated that Marla is attending "his" meetings. His insomnia comes back beccause this "faker" is in his presence. Even though he is doing the exact same thing as Marla, he is being hyppocritical that he cannot have this "tourist" attending his meetings. I think that this could also be a statement on women in the work place. Marla is just as perverse as Tyler, however, "how dare she attend?" Women for years had to fight for equal jobs. However they still do not get paid as well as men do in our society. Maybe this is the reason why Tyler beings a males only fight club. To get away from this female "faker".